Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 4.1 per cent. That is the second increase in just two months. For millions of Australians, that decision has just rewritten their household budgets overnight. Families in my community are now paying the price for an inflation problem they did not create, and they're asking the very simple question: who is responsible? Because part of that answer sits right here in this place. When government spending remains high and the Reserve Bank is left to do all of the heavy lifting, it's everyday Australians who carry the burden. We have seen the pattern: when rates come down, the government is quick to take credit, but when they go up, that responsibility is pushed elsewhere. You cannot have it both ways.

Let me be honest. Many of us in this place will not feel the full impact of these decisions. If we did, we would be moving very quickly to fix the structural issues behind them. But families and small-business owners in communities like mine will feel it immediately. They will feel it when they fill up at the petrol station. They will feel it in their mortgage repayments. They will feel it every day as the cost of living continues to rise.

In Fowler, the median weekly household income is just $1,403. For a family with a mortgage, even a small rate rise of 25 basis points can mean around $100 extra a month, and two back-to-back increases only add to that pressure. That is money that cannot go towards groceries, petrol, school fees or rent, and in Fowler, transport is not optional. The average household has 1.7 vehicles, and nearly half of all households have two or more cars, not because people want to drive but because they don't have any other public transport and no real alternative. Public transport simply does not meet the needs of many families in my area. People need to get to work, drop their kids off at school, attend appointments and keep their small business running. At the same time, global instability is pushing fuel prices higher. Conflict in the Middle East is adding further pressure at the bowser, and families are feeling that heat straightaway. This is happening exactly at the wrong time.

When I was first elected I called on the government to cut the fuel excise to provide immediate relief. That call was dismissed, replaced with short-term announcements and temporary measures. But families do not need short-term sugar hits. They need real structural solutions. Now is the time for the government to step up, to have the courage to make the decisions to restore confidence for working Australians. People in communities like Fowler work hard. They pay their taxes. They do everything right. When families are doing everything right and are still falling behind, it's not them that's failing; it's us.

So I call on the government to revisit my original request to halve the fuel excise, which last year delivered almost $27 billion in revenue. A six-month pause would take real pressure off families and small businesses and off inflation.