Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I make a contribution, today in the House the Prime Minister advised the House that absent would be the member for Blair. This is the first opportunity I've had to get to my feet to offer my thoughts and prayers to him and his family as they navigate the waters ahead. He and I have been adversaries and neighbours from across the political divide, and I know him to be a good man. My thoughts are with him.

That aside, Labor are failing the Australian public. Shayne, if you're watching, you'll know that this is all true. I can see him firing up right now. Australians are poorer today as a result of the RBA's announcement to shift rates from 3.6 per cent to 3.85 per cent. There are so many people in Australia that will take the position that they don't own a house—'I don't have a mortgage, so the rate rise doesn't really affect me.' But can I tell you it does? It affects everyone because any business that's got an overdraft—and we come from a party of business; we come from a party that understands what it means to balance the books. We bet our lot. We bet our family home with a bank to say that we think we can get out the other side of this.

I know businesses in my electorate—my farming businesses, my coffee shops—have overdrafts. When their cost of business goes up, so does the cost of their production, so does the cost that gets pushed onto the consumers. That is, for those who can. Some of the larger ones that will deal with the larger retailers will make the argument that they can't push those costs on and they'll absorb it. But, to use the basic principles of business, you calculate your costs and you push them on. So today's rate rise means that everyone is going to be poorer as a result of the RBA's decision.

I remember being in grade 9. We had to debate, in an economics class, which was more important: fiscal or monetary policy. The lecturer or the teacher was trying to establish that you had a complete understanding of both policy settings. What's avoiding the Australian Labor Party, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer at the moment is that they're making the argument that there is now a complete separation between fiscal and monetary policy and the two are not connected. The Treasurer stood at the dispatch box today and tried to make the argument that none of the decisions that have been made by the Reserve Bank have got any unintended consequences for what we're doing here in this House. They've got no unintended consequences for what our spending habits are—none whatsoever.

You know, as a Labor Party, you're in trouble when you've got the ABC starting to roll the heat up on you. I draw you to the attention of no less than David Speers, who on 24 October had an interview with the Treasurer. The Treasurer said, 'I think, when it comes to inflation specifically, the worst is behind us, and better days are ahead.' I would have hoped that that was correct. And, as Australians, we all would have hoped that that was correct. Then, in April 2025, the comment from the Treasurer when inflation was going down was, 'This is proof of the responsible economic management which has been a defining feature of the Albanese government.' So they take credit for the numbers when they're going down, but it's always somebody else's fault when it's going up. I've got five kids. They're great kids, but even they're starting to see through it. How can you take the credit on one but not on the other? So Speers says in January 2026, just a couple of weeks ago— (Time expired)