Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Foodbank hunger report 2025 shockingly reveals that 20 per cent of Australian households are severely food insecure, and that parents are skipping meals so that their kids can eat. Commenting on Labor's cost-of-living measures, Foodbank has said that they 'didn't translate to food on the tables'. Prime Minister, why are more Australians going hungry under Labor?

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

The modern Liberal Party is not so much a broad church these days as a temple of doom. They talk everything down, each and every day. They vote against every single cost-of-living measure that we put in place. They argue that opposing tax cuts somehow doesn't make a difference to the capacity of people to get by. They argue that cheaper medicines won't assist people to get the health care that they need. They argue that free TAFE is something that people don't value—that to be able to get a job and upskill themselves is something they won't value. They argue that the creation of over a million jobs in just over—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

And they interject again, Mr Speaker. They won't learn. They didn't read Dennis Shanahan's comments over the last 24 hours, because if they did—

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The member for Gippsland and the Leader of the Nationals! I'm going to take the temperature down. I want to hear from the Leader of the Opposition on her point of order.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My point of order is on relevance, Mr Speaker. Sledges don't feed people. Can the Prime Minister give a straight answer?

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

No. Resume your seat. I've been trying to deal all week with the appropriateness of points of order. I've been more than generous with the Leader of the Opposition and members. I simply say that that is absolutely unacceptable.

An honourable member interjecting—

Order! No. We just can't have question time descend into this, where people just get up and say what they feel like saying. So I'm just going to counsel the opposition leader not to do that again. The Prime Minister was asked a question about cost-of-living measures and his policies regarding food security. It was a very broad question; I think everyone can agree with that. So the Prime Minister is being directly relevant. No more frivolous points of order. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

Those opposite haven't learnt. They interjected across the chamber. If they don't want attention drawn towards their interjections, which show their real views, they shouldn't make them.

The member opposite, when I spoke about the more than one million jobs that have been created and the lowest unemployment rate of any government in the last 50 years, interjected 'government jobs'. That exposes two things: (1) that they don't understand the jobs that have been created in the private sector and (2) their contempt for people who provide service delivery, including clearing out the waiting lists in Veterans' Affairs that we inherited—people who've served our nation in uniform and who then were denied their entitlements as a result of the cuts that were made by those opposite. That's why we remember that they went to the election saying they would sack 46,000 public servants. Then they said these public servants were all in Canberra, ignoring the fact that public servants in Centrelink, in Veterans' Affairs are out there in their electorates as well as in this electorate, in all of these communities and particularly in regional Australia, performing such an important role.

But of course the Leader of the Opposition, who asked this question, was part of a government that ripped $20 million from Foodbank. Then they have the hide to raise Foodbank— (Time expired)