Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The body representing small businesses in the hospitality sector, the Restaurant and Catering Association, has warned Australians that cafes and restaurants are having to jack up prices because of Labor's high electricity prices and rising interest rates. When will this out-of-touch Prime Minister finally admit that Australian families and businesses always pay more under Labor?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lindsay for her question, and I say I was in Lindsay last Friday, in Penrith, with former mayor Karen McKeown. Karen McKeown and I were talking with small businesses in Penrith, and the small businesses we spoke to gave us a very warm welcome. We went to the Westfield in Penrith and we talked to the new coffee shop's owner, which had been open for just a few weeks, and they were optimistic about their future. We spoke to restauranteurs. We spoke to all the small businesses in the heart of Penrith. Last Saturday they responded by electing Karen McKeown as the member for Penrith, with a record swing in that electorate. One of the things they were looking for in Penrith when I was there was an end to the sort of Eeyore philosophy of those opposite—'It's all doom. The world's going to end. Everything's terrible.' Those opposite are turning into one of those cults that say the world's going to end. Every time the Senate passes a piece of legislation they put their robes on and they all get ready, because it's all going to end! Whether it's the safeguard mechanism, the National Reconstruction Fund or industrial relations—remember the IR legislation? They said small business was going to be destroyed by that. There were going to be mass strikes. The only strike we've seen has been from the Leader of the Opposition entering New South Wales. That's the only strike that we've seen.

The fact is that we are getting on with the business of making a positive difference. Whether it's in actions such as the safeguard mechanism, dealing with supply chain issues through the National Reconstruction Fund, housing through our Housing Australia Future Fund or the industrial relations legislation—the legislation that I spoke on before question time about gender pay equity—with all of these issues, what we're doing is working constructively for solutions, because that's what Australians are looking for. They have conflict fatigue. They want a government that will deliver and that will make a difference, notwithstanding the challenges before the global economy. They want a government that is actually legislating an agenda and making a positive difference. That's the feedback I got in Penrith last Friday.