Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Hume proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The inflation crisis which this Government has caused.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians are hurting. As I get around Australia and as I get around my own electorate, I ask, 'How are you feeling versus a year ago?' I get a very consistent answer. They feel poorer, because they all know they have rising mortgage costs, they have rising fuel bills, they have rising prices at the checkout and they have rising taxes. For everything they buy, goods or services, they know they are paying more under this government.

We know a typical hardworking Australian family trying to get ahead is $25,000 a year worse off than a year ago. Finding that in after-tax income is a monumental feat, and we have to pay tribute to those hardworking Australians who we know are working more hours and digging harder into their savings because this government has given up the ghost when it comes to fighting inflation. They talk the talk but they never walk the walk, and any attempt they have made to put together a plan to fight inflation has failed at the first hurdle. We have a Treasurer right now who is more interested in banning cheques and writing 6,000-word essays than he is in fighting inflation. This Treasurer is a doctor of spin, not a doctor of economics, and it is showing, because we have seen his budget fail within a month.

I draw your attention to page 56 of Budget Paper No. 1, which talks about interest rates, and it highlights the expectations that interest rates would 'remain at 3.85 per cent until early 2024', from which time they will fall. This was in the budget in May, but, in just a few short weeks, we saw that fall apart, with interest rates going up to 4.1 per cent, and we have an expectation now from economists and the markets that we'll see further rate rises into the future. And it is no coincidence that this happened immediately after the budget, because the budget failed. It didn't deliver on the promises it made, and this is what we are seeing from this government time and time again, whether it's energy prices, the budget or mortgage costs. They make the promises and then they walk away and don't take responsibility.

Just last week we saw the national accounts come out. What we saw in that was that the Australian economy, on top of the fact that we have raging inflation and rising interest rates, is shuddering to a halt. For the last quarter, we saw GDP grow at 0.2 per cent. Here's where it gets very real, because it's GDP per person that counts. That's what people feel, and that has stopped. It's going backwards. We have a government here that is overseeing an economy it inherited that was strong. It is now shattering to a halt. Australians are now working more hours in a week, in a day, than they have since 1978. That's what they have to do to make ends meet. They're digging deep, because that's what Australians do. Australians are resilient, but they need to be resilient in the face of this government. They have to fight hard just to hold things together.

As I said, we've seen Australians saving less. In just a year, we've also seen a total collapse of labour productivity under this Labor government. In the last 12 months alone, labour productivity dropped by 4.6 per cent—and that's negative! Under the previous government, we saw an 11 per cent gain in labour productivity across our time in government. Almost half of that was wiped out in a single year under this government. It's no wonder that Philip Lowe, the Reserve Bank governor, using polite central banker speak that he does, is saying, 'Hey, under those circumstances, I have no choice; I have to raise interest rates.' That's what this government is delivering, and it needs to take responsibility for the situation.

You would have thought that with that kind of collapse in productivity, the Treasurer or the Prime Minister would show some interest in finding out more about it. But it turns out that the Treasurer, having seen the Productivity Commission bring down one of its most important reports—every five years it reports on productivity and brings out thousands of pages in that report—has not even bothered to meet with the chairman of the Productivity Commission. He hasn't even bothered to talk to him! He hasn't even bothered to do it. The truth of the matter is that this government doesn't care. It is all politics, not policy, because the Treasurer, as I say, is a doctor of spin, not a doctor of economics.

It is important to look at how Australia is doing versus the rest of the world. The Prime Minister likes to talk about this, but it's important to go to the facts. The facts are that Australia has a core inflation rate—which is the number that economists look at—running at 6.6 per cent. In the March quarter, we saw the US at 5.6 per cent, we saw Canada at 4.3 per cent and we saw the Euro Area at 5.7 per cent. In fact, we see Australia leading the world in exactly the wrong way. I am not always inclined to quote ABC Fact Check. On this one, I will. They have made it very clear that Australia is leading the world in exactly the wrong way.

If you look at historical comparisons—which those opposite love to do—between our time in office and this government's time in office, the average inflation rate over the coalition's nine years in office was 1.85 per cent. The average inflation rate over the first four quarters of the Labor government is over seven per cent. The average cash rate over the coalition's nine years in office was 1.34 per cent. After one year of Labor, it has risen to 4.1 per cent. As I said earlier, across our nine years in government, labour productivity increased by 11 per cent and total factor productivity increased by five per cent. In one year alone, we've seen a minus 4.6 per cent collapse in labour productivity.

I'm glad the member for Parramatta is here because he understands that, if you have that kind of productivity loss and you want to deliver higher prosperity to Australians, you simply can't do it. This is a catastrophic collapse, and it's a catastrophic collapse under this Labor government. When you look at what's behind it, we know that inflation is coming from Canberra. It's not coming from the Kremlin. From this government, we saw $185 billion of additional spending in this budget—$2 of additional discretionary spending for every dollar of saving. We've seen economist after economist say that the most generous thing you can say about this budget from Labor in terms of fiscal policy is that it hasn't helped. Well, they promised that they were going to fight inflation first, and that's not what we've seen. We're seeing industrial relations productivity. They are taking us back to the toxic industrial relations environment of the seventies and the eighties. That's showing up in the numbers.

Former productivity commissioner Gary Banks has told the AFR:

The current flurry of regulatory changes, under the banners of 'getting wages moving', 'job security' and 'equality', are likely to impede the flexibility and 'dynamism' that is integral to productivity growth and higher real wages—

which are what we want to see. But the former productivity commissioner says that Labor is going in exactly the wrong direction. On the release of the Productivity Commission report:

… he depicted it merely as 'an addition to the debate'—

talking about the Treasurer—

with little indication of areas to be followed up.

The current stance by the government is looking—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just take a pause for a moment. I have tolerated a lot of interjections across the chamber. I don't want to hear any more.

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The truth of the matter is that those opposite don't care about inflation. They have no idea how to fight it.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Hawke, I have just explained I don't want to hear interjections across the chamber.

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I just say to the collective bright brains trust that was sitting opposite: when they say 'fight out the ideas' they don't mean physically attack the shadow Treasurer. I'm really sorry to see that he is under that ailment. What I was expecting to see when we were discussing the topic of inflation here today was that, unlike what we saw in the budget reply, maybe, just maybe, the opposition was going to come and say, 'This is our idea to fight inflation.' I thought it might even be possible that, if they weren't going to disclose an idea, they might have come forward and given a hint that maybe the shadow Treasurer is the Josh Lyman of Australian politics and actually had a secret plan to fight inflation. But, no, there's no plan, there's no secret plan and there's been no costing of their ideas. This is an opposition that is completely out of its depth.

We understand that getting on top of the inflation challenge is a central focus for a government and a budget in handling our economy. But it's worth the opposition reflecting on the fact that the highest level of quarterly inflation was under the previous government, in the March quarter of last year. Theirs is the record of ignominy when it comes to inflation. In fact, the level of inflation in the March quarter of 2022 under the last government was the worst quarter for inflation this entire century. That is the record from which they come into here and purport to lecture us on handling the inflation issue that is confronting our economy and confronting all Australians right now.

So, being clear that this is a problem that started under the last government, it's important to realise that they didn't do anything to address the shocks that our nation has been confronted with externally over some time. There were the supply shocks generated by COVID. There is the war in Ukraine, which has had a global inflationary effect. But, of course, we've also had the pent-up savings that occurred during those COVID lockdown periods across the country. But did the previous government, seeing these things occurring, do anything in terms of its economic settings, in terms of the way it delivered its budgets over the last decade to make sure that Australia was set up to deal with these challenges? No, it didn't. It's got no ideas whatsoever about how to deal with these important issues.

On our side of politics, however, the centrepiece of our second budget is a $14.6 billion cost-of-living package over the next four years that will ease pressure on Australians whilst putting downward pressure on inflation. People are under the pump; we acknowledge that as a government. We've carefully calibrated and designed this budget so that it takes pressure off the cost of living rather than adding to it. This budget prioritised responsible, targeted cost-of-living relief while also investing in the future, securing the services that Australians rely on and strengthening our nation's finances. The cost-of-living measures in our 2023-24 budget included the largest investment in bulk-billing incentives ever, delivering $3.5 billion to triple the bulk-billing incentives and help 11.6 million eligible Australians access a GP with no out-of-pocket expenses. To put that in real terms, in my own community in Burt that will assist over 90,000 people. We've also tripled the veterans' access payment to make it easier for veterans to access a GP. We're reducing the cost of medicines by up to half for at least six million people. We're spending up to $3 billion on electricity bill relief across the country. We're seeing that retail price increases are now expected to be 25 percentage points lower than what we would've seen if we'd had the 'no policy' approach of the previous government.

Our budget includes $4.9 billion to increase the base rate of several working-age and student income support payments like the JobSeeker payment and youth allowance by $40 a fortnight for eligible recipients. Again, for ordinary Australians in my community that will help over 9,000 people. In the 2022 budget delivered by Labor we also increased the annual totally and permanently incapacitated pension payment by $1,000, providing financial assistance to our most injured veterans. Our budget included $2.7 billion to increase the maximum rate of Commonwealth rent assistance by 15 per cent, and a $1.9 billion investment in the single parent payment.

Let's not forget that from 1 July, which is only a few weeks away now, we're making child care cheaper for 1.2 million Australian families. They will be better off as a consequence. That will assist over 6,000 families in the electorate of Burt. This will have an immediate impact on the hip pocket of young families. And it concerns me that the relevant shadow minister for this area continues to criticise this policy. It's a real 'have it each way' approach from this opposition. They walk in here and whinge about a policy that is going to provide cost-of-living relief for Australian families: a childcare subsidy policy that is going to make it cheaper to access, make it easier for families to access and make it easier for both parents to be able to continue to pursue their careers. It is a productivity-lifting policy, yet they come in here and complain about it. Of course, the opposition couldn't vote against it because they know how good a policy it actually is.

This will help maintain an affordable, high-quality early childhood education system across Australia. Investing in child care isn't just about assisting young Australians; it's also good for our economy. It boosts productivity and workforce participation—critical, as even the shadow Treasurer pointed out, for helping deal with these issues of inflation. In fact, Treasury estimates that our cheaper childcare plan will add some 1.4 million hours per week in terms of the workforce. That's the equivalent to putting an additional 37,000 full-time workers into the workforce. It's about taking all of those matters into account, as the Reserve Bank governor did. When asked about our budget, he made this very interesting and telling point: 'I don't think the budget is adding to inflation; it's actually reducing inflation in the next financial year.' That's completely the opposite to what the shadow Treasurer was trying to maintain earlier. Treasury's advice is that our policies to ease cost-of-living pressure are expected to directly reduce inflation by three-quarters of a percentage point in 2023-24. So the shadow Treasurer, who likes selectively quoting out of the budget papers, might want to refer to those particular figures as well.

Of course, inflation is still higher than any of us would like, and it has been more persistent than would be ideal. That's why we are putting downward pressure, in our budget, on inflation. It's why we are making these meaningful differences to the families that need support most, by providing this cost-of-living relief in our budget. Australians also understand that, when the Reserve Bank of Australia makes its decision in respect of interest rates and the cash rate, that is a decision that is made independently of government.

As I started to say before, the coalition likes to 'talk it up', by selectively quoting some statistics from its record in the past decade when they were in government. Let's just think about what ordinary Australians—mums and dads and Australian families—saw in the economy and in their own hip pockets under a decade of this last government. They saw flatlining and anaemic wage growth. They saw a circumstance under the last government where the cost of living was still going up, but nothing was happening to help them pay for those increases in the cost of living. They had completely flat wage growth and flat growth across the economy. This was a previous government that did not understand the need to support ordinary workers across the economy. In fact, it wasn't just something that happened under their term of government; it was a deliberate policy position of the last government to keep wages low, to keep the incomes of Australian families low.

So let's just reflect on that versus what we have achieved in just one year of being in government. We've successfully advocated for wage increases for minimum and award wage workers, and a funding pay rise for aged-care workers. We are delivering cheaper child care. We are delivering cheaper medicines. We are tripling the bulk-billing incentive to support 11.6 million eligible Australians. We are delivering fee-free TAFE and more university places. We are expanding paid parental leave. We're building more affordable homes through the National Housing Accord. We have brought in a new pensioner work bonus for older Australians so that they can continue working without affecting their pension. We are increasing the base rate for eligible recipients of JobSeeker, Austudy, youth allowance and other working-age payments. We are increasing the maximum rate of the Commonwealth rent assistance by up to 15 per cent—the biggest increase in over three decades. In partnership with state and territory governments, we are providing electricity bill rebates for more than five million households and one million small businesses. Our budget is delivering real cost-of-living relief. It's a responsible budget. It's a practical budget. That is not what we ever saw from those opposite.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians are hurting. Right across the country, Australians are facing insurmountable pressure through the impact of inflation growing to 6.8 per cent in April. The cost of day-to-day living is ever increasing. Rising mortgage rates, rising prices at the checkout and rising energy bills are chipping away at already tight budgets. Constituents in my electorate of Capricornia are looking down the barrel of a 28.7 per cent increase in their electricity bills come 1 July. That's an additional $429 a year they will need to find at a time when inflation is smashing their cost of living. They are also paying eight per cent more for their groceries. For anyone living on the margins, every increase in the essentials means one less basic necessity. To make ends meet, Australians are working longer hours. In fact, Australians are working the most hours since 1978, but they aren't any better off for it. Make no mistake: times are difficult.

This month the RBA announced for the 11th time another interest rate rise under this government. The decision to lift interest rates once again will leave many anxious as to what this means for the budget's bottom line. I anticipate there will be many difficult decisions being made in the coming months as families struggle to make ends meet. Australians haven't seen the light at the end of the tunnel, with additional interest rate rises in the pipeline. NAB is already predicting further hikes in July and August, and Westpac is signalling to customers to expect another increase.

Leading into May's budget, Australians hoped to see policies that would effectively fight inflation and ease the cost-of-living crisis. Instead this Labor government delivered more pain on the hip pocket. The additional rate hike is the proof in the pudding that Labor's budget did nothing to ease the burden of inflation on the economy. Since coming to govern Australia, Labor have delivered two budgets. It was clear the policies delivered by those opposite have done nothing to fight inflation prior to the budget being released in May. Market expectation was that additional rate rise would be unlikely. The dramatic turnaround on these expectations, including the Reserve Bank decision to increase interest rates, proves Labor to be complacent with combating inflation. Once again, the Reserve Bank is forced to do the heavy lifting. This is the consequence of a government that has let inflation get out of control and has failed to take responsibility for addressing the biggest economic challenge facing Australians.

Our economy is grinding to a halt as Labor allow inflation to consume the country. Because of Labor's complacency, Australians are saving less. The household saving ratio is 7.6 per cent lower than a year ago and almost 20 per cent lower than during the peak the pandemic. It's been 12 months since Labor was elected, and our nation is far worse off than a year ago. The March quarter annual accounts show that, after a year of Labor, the economy is growing at the slowest rate since September 2021, when both New South Wales and Victoria were in COVID lockdowns. At a time when Australians need every dollar they can get, their individual income tax has increased by 11.4 per cent since last year. That's less hard-earned money in the pockets of my constituents and more in the coffers of the government.

Before the election, the country was promised it would be easier under a Labor government. Is it though? The reality is different to the dream Labor sold the public. Mortgage repayments, gas and electricity bills, supermarket and petrol station receipts, and insurance premiums are the evidence that we are not living in the utopia Labor promised. The number of businesses going into insolvency has almost doubled in over 12 months. A record number of mortgage holders are struggling to make payments. A typical Australian family with a mortgage and children is $25,000 worse off than it was last year. These figures are alarming, and yet we have a government which is failing to take strong and decisive action on fighting inflation. Hardworking Australians are paying a heavy price for this government's failures.

Under a Labor government, Australians will see real wages continue to stagnate, the cost of living continue to rise, gas and electricity bills continue to skyrocket, more unemployed and inflation sitting at elevated levels. What is needed is policies that we know are proven to work—policies that will help strengthen our economy, that will make sure our hardworking middle class isn't forgotten and that will provide tax relief. The coalition will support our resources industry, our farmers and our domestic manufacturers, and we'll make sure they can thrive and prosper here in Australia. We'll back small businesses and support households and families across Australia who are doing it tough under Labor's cost-of-living crisis.

Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an important MPI put forward by the shadow Treasurer and it is one that talks on an important issue, but, as with all things with the shadow Treasurer, you really have to trust but verify some of the numbers coming out of the shadow Treasurer's office. I'm going to get back to that in a second—the real 'trust but verify' numbers coming out of the shadow Treasurer 's office.

First of all, let me say this. Inflation is real. It does hurt Australians, and that is why we have seen budgetary restraint and the leadership taken by the Treasurer, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Finance around banking some of the increased revenue that we've seen made not just by increased commodity prices but by Australians who are working harder and longer hours. There are more Australians in work. This is revenue that has been received by the government off the back of the hard work of Australians, and we want to make sure that we see Australians keep more of what they earn. That's why we've put so much effort into getting wages moving again and putting more back into the pockets of hardworking Australians. That is what we are doing, and we will continue to do that work.

But let's go back to the shadow Treasurer just for a moment, because the shadow Treasurer has a bit of form on his management of numbers. Full credit to the opposition for putting as their head bean counter someone who has an interesting relationship with being able to calculate numbers. Who could forget when the shadow Treasurer famously came in not only to this place but to other places and said that the City of Sydney had spent $15.9 million on travel expenses? At first glance, you would think that's a little bit more than you would think for a council. A council shouldn't be spending $15.9 million on one year of travel. And you would think that someone in such a senior economic position in the government would be able to think their way through what that number actually means. What does $15.9 million actually translate to?

I've done a bit of homework that, frankly, should have been done by the then minister's office. They're public servants, so you give them the flexi fare. You don't give them the inflexible fare from Jetstar. Let's get them on the flexi fare from Qantas and make sure that they can change their flights around. So $15.9 million at the $300 flexi fare between Sydney and Melbourne—because that's the most travelled route, you would think—translates to 53,000 flights that Clover Moore apparently took in one year. If you break that down one more level, the shadow Treasurer thought he had quite a scoop in saying that Clover Moore had taken 145 flights a day. Could you imagine getting on the plane to Melbourne, arriving in the most spectacular and cultured city in Australia and then having to go all the way back to Sydney, only to have to get back and do another 143 flights a day? It seems like a pretty implausible situation, yet that is what the shadow Treasurer led with. It's hardly surprising that on 2 November 2020, the Guardian had a headline that said 'Angus Taylor v Clover Moore: WhatsApp messages reveal panic as minister's staff realise figures were wrong'. I can imagine that there would have been a bit of panic in the minister's office. There would have been quite a bit panic because, of course, it wasn't $15.9 million. The actual figures that were used by the council—the City of Sydney—were $4,206 for international travel and $1,700 in domestic flights. That's a little different from $14 million.

So, like with everything this shadow Treasurer has to say, you have to be very, very careful with what he puts forward. I know that he has been in the vegemite jar this week. He has been right in there. He added a bit of mayo to the vegemite. That's what he did. It's an unusual combination, but it may have resulted in a few of his colleagues sending Andrew Clennell a few SMSs giving opinions about the shadow Treasurer. We shouldn't laugh. The shadow Treasurer can put forward all of his wacky theories. He's going to do that.

We on this side of the House are always going to stand with the hardworking people of this country. We're going to take our budgetary responsibilities extremely seriously. We are going to keep working until inflation comes back down to appropriate levels, and we will keep backing hardworking Australians each and every day, because that's what a good government does.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hume, our shadow Treasurer, for bringing this very important matter of public importance to this House's attention: the inflation crisis which this government has caused. I have sat here and heard from a minister for veterans' affairs who spent most of his time making references. He made a fairly glib reference to The West Wing. While I am very fond of Josh Lyman—one of the best characters in The West WingI think that this matter of public importance did deserve a little bit more attention and a little bit more intellectual rigour than was brought. The member for Macnamara has now spent just over three minutes referencing and quoting various other supposed quotes from the shadow Treasurer, rather than actually addressing this inflation crisis and talking about what his government, after 12 months, is actually going to do about it.

Australians are suffering. They are hurting. I have in the gallery today Mr Jack Smyth from my electorate who has come down here with his family, and what he has not heard from those opposite on the government benches are any answers as to how the government is going to address the inflation crisis. If we just look at some of the numbers and some of the facts after 12 months under the Albanese Labor government, the economy is shuddering to a halt. In the March quarter, the annual accounts show that, after a year of Labor in government, the economy is now at its slowest since September 2021, when New South Wales and Victoria were in COVID lockdowns. What answers does this government have to this crisis? So far, the answer is nothing. Because of inflation, a dollar today is worth far less than it was a year ago, and Australians around our country are grappling with mounting costs. If we look back at where we were a year ago, we are in a far worse position today on any measure, whether we are looking at mortgage repayments, gas and electricity bills, superannuation, petrol receipts or insurance premiums. These are items that people in my electorate are telling me every day are getting worse day by day and are far worse today than they were one year ago.

Even if the government does not want to listen to real people and does not want to listen to what people in my electorate are saying, let us consider what former Reserve Bank of Australia governor Dr Glenn Stevens said just last week. These are his direct words, a quote:

… inflation is … way too high …

He said that interest rates could remain elevated for some time yet. That's a direct quote from Dr Glenn Stevens. ANU economist Ashley Craig confirmed the government is making the RBA's job much harder, saying:

The present government decided to take an expansionary position … If the government's spending and taxation choices are too expansionary, the RBA must act by raising interest rates.

So there we have it from two pre-eminent economists: it is the government's budgets, the budgets of Jim Chalmers, that have led directly to the Reserve Bank having no other option but to keep increasing interest rates.

Therefore, in circumstances where real wages are stagnant, the cost of living will continue to rise, gas and electricity bills will continue to skyrocket, we're seeing that unemployment will rise, and inflation will continue to stay stubbornly high while ever the government continues with the same budgetary problems and budgetary issues that we've seen delivered in October last year and in May of this year. The budget, therefore, has failed Australians at a time when they needed a government that's focused on fighting inflation.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government is committed to easing cost-of-living pressures on everyday people. We know it is tough for people, and that's why we're providing sensible cost-of-living relief while not adding to inflation. In May we delivered a responsible budget, a budget which will ease the cost-of-living pressures without unnecessarily fuelling inflation. Yes, that's right, Deputy Speaker: this budget will address the immediate challenges this country faces, create more opportunities for more Australians and lay the foundations for a stronger, more resilient and more secure economy.

A key tenet of this budget is to put downward pressure on inflation, but don't take my word for it. The RBA governor, Philip Lowe, said, and I quote:

I don't think that the budget is adding to inflation; it's actually reducing inflation …

The independent Governor of the Reserve Bank, whose job it is to look at inflation and determine what is inflationary, believes that our budget is actually reducing inflation. And this budget delivered a surplus, might I add?

But how are we delivering this relief? With some wonderful measures: investing in Medicare by tripling the bulk-billing incentive, reducing the cost of medicines, providing energy bill relief, lowering projected energy prices by intervening in the energy market, making child care cheaper, providing fee-free TAFE, and targeting relief to those most in need, like single parents and jobseekers.

I know that these measures are already resonating in my community. Just last week I received an open letter from nine medical peak bodies with a collective membership of over 50,000 healthcare practitioners. The long and short of the letter is that these peak bodies are thrilled about our cheaper medicines policies, and I'll tell you why. Our cheaper medicines policy will save people money and time. It will also free up more local GP appointments, and it'll do this without being inflationary. From 1 September, eligible people will be able to receive two months worth of medicine on a single script. That's double the medicine for the same money. That's a big win. Cheaper medicines will halve visits to local GPs, freeing up appointments for those who need them most. We're also delivering Medicare urgent care clinics, including one at Batemans Bay. We're also funding a Head to Health clinic in Moruya, providing free mental health care for adults. But it's not just adults. We're well on the way to opening a headspace up at Kiama, so that's free mental health care for adults and adolescents. Better health care—that's something to be proud of.

But that isn't all of it. In the May budget you will have seen we're providing targeted relief on power bills, another measure that provides targeted relief where it is needed most. All Commonwealth seniors healthcare card holders, as well as many other concession card holders, will be eligible for energy bill relief and will receive up to $500 per household. But this isn't throwing money around for the sake of it. It is targeted spending, because this budget is responsible. We know people are doing it tough, and we want to provide relief. That's the Albanese Labor government, though. We're working to provide real relief where people need it, right when they need it. You can see this in our cheaper medicines policy, our tripling of the bulk billing incentive, our energy price relief, our intervention in the energy market and our cheaper childcare measures. The Albanese Labor government is getting on with what we were elected to do. We're delivering the change that Australians voted for. Our job is to look at what we can do with fiscal policy with our budget, how we can address the issue of rising inflation and, at the same time, how we can help with cost-of-living pressures. We've done just that. We assisted with sensible cost-of-living relief whilst reining in inflation.

But I've got a bit of advice for some of the others opposite. If you want to help Australian people, get your colleagues in the Senate to vote for the Housing Australia Future Fund. Not a day goes by where I don't hear a sad story about people needing to find somewhere to live but they can't. If the government really wanted to do something about inflation and cost of living, it would pass the Housing Australia Future Fund, which will increase the supply of affordable and social housing and help people survive.

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the shadow Treasurer, the member for Hume, for bringing this very important matter of public importance to the House: the inflation crisis which has been caused by those opposite, the Albanese Labor government. I am a little bit disappointed. As a matter of fact, I'm very disappointed, because every time you ask serious questions of those opposite about matters that are affecting the Australian people—the people that I love, and the people that I represent—all they do is smirk and laugh. We have the Treasurer there smiling and laughing when we ask these very, very important questions, and the Prime Minister doing the same. And they're supposed to be leading this country. But—no, no, no—that's not what they're doing. They think it's funny.

Effectively, this Albanese Labor government has inherited a very, very strong economic tree.

Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're $1 trillion in debt!

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take the interjection—'$1 trillion in debt'. Thank you for that. That's not true. You know it's not true. Even your mates from the ABC know that the number is not right. You did not take over $1 trillion of debt. It's factually incorrect.

Honourable members interjecting—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Member for Casey, I am speaking. I reminded everyone less than 20 minutes ago that I didn't want this, so please respect my ruling, and let's just move along and have a respectful debate. Back to you, Member for Dawson.

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The economic powerhouse tree that you inherited from the previous coalition had low unemployment and maintained a AAA credit rating, and this was after a global pandemic. We saw low interest rates and low inflation. And now what's happened since the Albanese Labor government has taken over? We all know that Labor is not good at managing money. You've got form for that. We understand that. But nobody in Australia realised it would be this bad. What has happened to this flourishing economic tree? First of all, you started to ringbark it. You got the chainsaw out and ran the ringbarker straight around, and that was part of the first budget. That was when all the infrastructure projects, particularly up in my neck of the woods, were taken right out. They were totally axed. That's what happens when you don't create dams and when you don't build any infrastructure; there is less productivity.

But that wasn't enough. You decided to get the Tordon out to the tree, and you put the Tordon around it to see if you could kill the economic tree. That was the safeguard mechanism, or—let's call it what it is—the carbon tax 2.0. It's another dagger to the heart of business and of industry. That wasn't enough for the tree, so then you got the Velpar out, and put the Velpar around all the roots. That was the industrial relations policy, which makes it harder for small business.

There's no doubt that the current government is only interested in people who are working for the government or in big businesses that it can unionise. In the end, they got the excavator out, didn't they? The Albanese Labor government got the excavator out and dug all the roots around. That was the final blow for the tree, the recent budget, and then the tree has fallen over. The Treasurer and the Prime Minister have looked at it and gone: 'Holy smokes, look at this. We thought it was really strong but, no, we've killed it.' This budget has fuelled inflation with $185 billion in additional spending.

What has happened since then? There has been another rate rise, which is the 11th rate rise under this government. People in my area with mortgages of $500,000 are paying more than $1,100 extra per month. This is firmly at the feet of the Albanese Labor government. Don't be laughing about it. Do something about it. You're in government. You're supposed to be holding the reins and looking after the Australian people. That's what you're paid to do. In Senate estimates the RBA governor, Philip Lowe, confirmed that this discretionary spending in the budget was expansionary. You're making the situation worse. It needs to be better. Electricity prices are going up. Grocery prices are going up. Mortgages are going up. Take control and look after Australia. (Time expired)

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise on this matter of public importance and join this discussion in the chamber today. I would note that the matters of public importance are getting repetitious. I know my colleagues on this side have been delivering the same points, but today we have some more good news about what this side, the government, is doing about rising inflation. That's good news for communities like mine, where we have the highest number of mortgage holders in the country. More than 50 per cent of the households in the community that I represent are families in each household, and most have a mortgage. They have felt every rate increase. But the good news that is coming for communities like mine is that those who are working and being paid a modern award are now going to get a 5.75 per cent pay increase. That is how you deal with inflation. You put money into the pockets of the people who are working hard so that they can afford to pay these rate rises.

Let's face it, in my community that won't be inflationary. People on award wages in my electorate won't be rushing out to buy a boat. No, they'll be paying their mortgage. They'll be finding that space again in the family budget. It is good news. That is how you deal with inflation in this country, by looking after the people in this country who do the hard work, the people who work in the economies that this country relies on, like the care economy. Of course, we also have coming in the care economy an incredible investment and commitment from this government that will see a 15 per cent pay rise for those working in aged care. That is how we are dealing with inflation. Those things are about priorities.

Budgets are about priorities. I've been in this chamber for nearly 10 years, and I've seen a few budgets and I've seen a few skewed priorities. I remember distinctly the 2014 budget that ripped funds away from the community sector in my electorate and left homelessness services with absolutely nowhere to go. I was meeting with CSOs in homeless and community services who were in despair about how they were going to support people on the ground. I remember that budget well. I remember the money being ripped out of my community.

And it wasn't just one budget. It was budget after budget after budget where the priorities of the former government became very apparent. Not to put too fine of a point on it for the member for Dawson: this government didn't 'take over', mate. We were elected. And not to put too fine a point on it, the repetition of those budget priorities is what led to us being here, sitting on the government benches now and celebrating the fact that families in my electorate will get some relief under this government, that this government will take targeted action and show restraint and that this government will put money back in with a projected surplus to come, which is something those opposite failed to deliver in their nine budgets. They prioritised, not the people in my electorate—they didn't prioritise my community—but they prioritised other people in this country. That's what their priorities did.

We saw that as late as just before the last election and we've heard about it this week—it's yet another example. For me and my community, the most egregious thing that we heard from those opposite in nine years was about the parking lots at train stations in inner Melbourne. These were going into communities that already had buses, trams and a station mostly 800 metres from people's homes. And they were going to get car parks, while out in the outer suburbs it was nothing! Not one car park at our train stations. We heard this week that the Community Health and Hospitals Fund has been through an audit process and that while those opposite undermined Medicare they were targeting spending by using their priorities. And none of it landed in my community—not one cent of it was going to come to our community.

Fortunately, they're not in government, and these will be reviewed dramatically to ensure that the things that were done under that government are stopped now, and that the priorities that support most Australian families will be delivered by this Albanese Labor government. And in two budgets we have started that work. Mark my words, we have a lot more work to do, but I'm really proud of the first 12 months and I'm really proud of my community and the way they're managing to live in this inflationary crisis. I'm here to support them.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll go to a topic that those opposite like to talk about a lot. They get upset when we call out the political spin of the $1 trillion lie of the debt they inherited. A few people yelled out before, 'What are the numbers?' so I will give them the numbers. The net debt you inherited was $514 billion, and 30 per cent of that was inherited by the former coalition government from the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. So those are the numbers; you can keep spinning the line as much as you like, but it's actually not true. You can go to the ABC's Fact Check and you can go to this wonderful thing called the budget papers to check those numbers. They all add up, so that's the number that you inherited. You can continue the spin as much as you like; it's not true.

The Minister for Veteran's Affairs spoke at the start of this debate and talked about how the biggest quarter for inflation was March last year. While that's correct, there's a pretty significant event that happened in the March quarter last year: Russia invaded Ukraine. Clearly, that was going to have an impact. He then went on to claim that the former government did nothing to support Australians. I seem to remember that there was this great initiative in cutting the fuel excise. That was immediate, and it gave relief to Australians when they needed it. It was temporary so as not to continue to impact on the structural deficit within the budget. That's what the former coalition government did: when there were challenges they acted straightaway, and the Australian public knows that. They saw it every week at the fuel bowser; when prices were over $2.20 they went down to under $2. We're now back, depending on the weekend and where you are, somewhere between $1.80 and $2 mark. That's an example of how you can act decisively when crises come.

What we hear from this government is all excuses. This is the Prime Minister who I'll quote from April last year: 'I'll take responsibility. I'll show leadership. I'll deal with the challenges that are there and there are also opportunities we can seize.' But all we hear from the dispatch box are excuses from this Prime Minister. The Treasurer said on 17 May last year:

… we want to show up every day and take responsibility. Not just for the good things, but for the difficult things as well.

Well, he's not taking responsibility. They stand up every day and talk about spin. When we look at this budget and at the inflationary challenges, we don't have to take the RBA governor's word for it, because we know he's under pressure: he's looking for his job to be renewed so he's not going to say anything publicly. But look at his actions weeks after the budget: an increase in interest rates. The reason that occurred is because the target of the Treasurer was completely wrong. Let's take it back a step: the inflationary target for this country is two to three per cent. That's the target we're aiming for. Where are we? At six, 6½ or seven per cent—6.8 per cent in April. What should a Treasurer and a Prime Minister try to do? Should they try to deliver a budget which, by their own admission, is at best case neutral? And at worst case, it's expansionary! That's by the Treasurer and the Prime Minister's own admission. No, that's not what he should have been aiming to do. He should have been aiming to bring inflation down to the two to three per cent target band that the RBA governor is trying to get to. So this Treasurer and this Prime Minister failed by their own admission because they had the wrong targets. This is going to cost Australians, and it's going to cost many people in Casey, as interest rates go up, as inflation goes up and as energy goes up.

We know this Prime Minister doesn't care about economics. He didn't know the cash rate. He didn't know the unemployment rate. He has no interest in economics. We have a Treasurer whose priority isn't the economy. This Treasurer's primary priority is, let's be honest, to make sure he can win the support of the backbench on the other side. That's what he's really looking at. He wants to take over from Prime Minister Albanese. That is his priority. He won't make the tough decisions required to bring inflation down. He leaves every Australian struggling every day to find the money they need to pay their bills. Australians know they've been abandoned by this government—they know every time they get an electricity bill or a gas bill, every time the bank sends them that letter saying their interest rates are going up, every time a new inflation target comes out significantly above what they were predicting.

This is a government that has no plans to bring inflation down. In fact, every time they make an economic decision, they make it worse. They're very happy to claim the credit from the independent Fair Work Commission, but they will then distance themselves from the independent Reserve Bank. You can't have it both ways. You can't claim credit from an independent organisation when you like the results they deliver and not take it when you don't like the results they deliver.

Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow Treasurer for this matter of public importance because many Australians are struggling with cost-of-living pressures. Inflation takes the most from the people who have the least to give. It hurts people who can't make their budget stretch any further. It hurts first home buyers and people already struggling with high rent. It hurts people already experiencing low wages growth over the last 10 years. I see that in my electorate. I see that at the Parramatta Mission, where the number of people uptaking the food parcels has increased by 187 per cent, where the meals program is up 140 per cent over the last year and where Centrelink referrals have more than tripled. That is the front line of the inflation challenge in Australia.

I'll tell you one person who isn't on the front line of the inflation challenge in Australia, and that's the mover of this motion, the shadow Treasurer. Everybody knows, by this point, that, in the last session of parliament, the shadow Treasurer messed up. He didn't know the price of Vegemite. That's okay. Everybody saw him confuse the annual rate with the monthly rate, which is a pretty big gaffe. What struck me was not that he made that mistake but why he made that mistake. If you were listening carefully, you would have heard the shadow Treasurer say where he got his information on the price of Vegemite. He didn't get it from talking to real people. He didn't get it from Coles. He didn't get it from Woolies. He didn't get it from food banks. He didn't get it from Aldi, although that is a sensible choice. He got it from a UBS Investment Bank report. When it comes to understanding the real pressure on real people, he turns to the merchant banking community—his eyes and ears on the realities of Australian families.

Now, I'm not saying he's out of touch, but he does find out the price of Weet-Bix from Westpac; he does check on the price of golden syrup from Goldman Sachs. Some people have their sources, like Deep Throat. He has Deutsche Bank. But it says something about the state of the Liberal Party—that they pretend to care about inflation, that they pretend to care about the cost of living, but that they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Could you be any more out of touch than coming into the people's House and talking about the price of groceries as you read from an investment banking report?

The truth is that the opposition isn't interested in fixing this problem; they're fixated on blaming the government for it. The words of this MPI make that clear: 'The inflation crisis which this government has caused'. Let's look at that causation. This CPI rising cycle began in 2020, when the level of the CPI was 114.4. From that point, of 114.4, that turning point in the CPI back in 2020, the CPI rose 12 points to 126.1 in the quarter of the federal election in 2022. It went up 12 points. From that point, it's risen six points to 132.6 today.

So, as of this point in the current inflationary cycle, 12 points happened under the Liberals and six have happened while Labor has been in government. Of the 18-point increase in the CPI level, there were 12 under those opposite and just six under us. And you see the math. Why did it go up so much under the Liberals? It went up so much under the Liberals because they delivered the most expansionary budgets in Australia's peacetime history, because of the billions of dollars wasted on JobKeeper, the worst targeted program in Australia's history, subsidising businesses and employees that did not have significant revenue hits.

Do you remember that JobKeeper Treasury analysis that identified them wasting $50 billion? The waste on that program was equivalent to some of the largest programs in Commonwealth government history. Giving JobKeeper money to companies that didn't have a decline in revenue—to Harvey Norman, to private schools, to Qantas, to hundreds of companies whose profit went up—was perhaps the biggest fiscal waste in Australia's history. That is the waste that drove up inflation on their watch. The simple reason is that they were profligate and took their eyes off the macroeconomic ball.

That's not the only reason inflation went up. There was a war in Ukraine and there were supply chain issues, but, to the extent that government action is part of those reasons, it was their government not ours.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion is now concluded.