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

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

The Government driving the fall of the living standards of Australians

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—

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, we just got through question time, but I can assure you there was no sunshine that came out of those answers because, right now, there has never been a time when Australians have done it so tough and yet the government continues to lord over them. This Prime Minister lords over them that they have never had it so good. We've never seen or faced a time where the government is so out of step and so out of touch with the lived experience of what Australians are living right now, where they go to the supermarket and every time they put something in a red basket, they're not just paying more, but they're getting less. It is the same with the trolley. If you're trying to build a home, you're having the costs rise every single day. The only answer the government is giving, the only answer this Prime Minister is giving, is Australians have never had it so good.

Australians want to get ahead. They want a sense of confidence for the future, and they have a prime minister who throughout question time has extolled the virtues of the government, constantly referring to how great his government is and how Australians should be thankful and appreciative for the incredible efforts from himself and his government. Well, let's look at some facts. Inflation is at 4 per cent. We are constantly seeing more debt—petrol poured on the inflation fire by the federal Treasurer—and as a consequence interest rates continue to rise. Australian households are being stretched, budgets are being stretched, and Australians are finding it harder not just to get ahead but just to keep themselves above water. We now have interest rates at 4.35 per cent the highest since 2011, and we've had 15 interest rate rises under this government. Australian families on a typical mortgage are now paying $29,400 a year. And let's remember this: that isn't $29,400 of pre-tax income; it's post-tax income. Many households simply cannot absorb that cost. So what a surprise that while we're seeing interest rates go up we're also seeing a big problem with the housing market and prices going down. And the only response from those opposite is to celebrate, to cheer, to toast falling house prices, without any recognition that that is often people's savings, their hard work, reflected in asset that provides the economic security for their family and often for a small business as well.

Household savings are now 6.2 per cent of income. Let's be clear about this: 6.2 per cent of income, down from 11.3 per cent when the Albanese government got elected. To keep their head above water, people are having to eat into their savings, just to stay afloat. GDP per capita is not higher than when Labor took office. In fact, we've seen it fall in 10 of the 16 quarters since the change of government. Australians are now paying 38.5 per cent more income tax. Think about that. Australians are trying and working harder, they're working longer hours and they're falling further behind. And it's not because they're doing anything wrong. It's because the government can't keep its mitts out of people's hip pockets. And because they can't control their spending, what do they do? They come after yours.

That is the consistent theme of a Labor government. They have no sense of respect for the hard work, savings and sacrifice of Australians. Instead, they see Australians' money as their money, as a pathway to their control, to be able to dictate the terms of how people live. Gross debt is crossing $1 trillion for the first time in 2026-27. And let's remember this: today's debt is tomorrow's taxes. So not only can they not keep their hands out of the hip pockets of Australians; they're now raiding the hip pockets of future generations as well.

The simple metrics show just how bad this government is. Cost-of-living pressure under this government: insurance up by 42 per cent; electricity up by 38 per cent, despite the incredible sunshine we've just heard all about; gas up by 37 per cent; rents up by 23 per cent; education up by 21 per cent, health care up by17 per cent; and food and grocery costs up by 17 per cent. We have an axis of arrogance with this government, where they simply are disconnected from the lived experience of Australians. Since the election we've seen a series of budget broken promises, whose only solution is to then go after more of Australians' money, because the government cannot manage its own.

We're now seeing them test the very fundamentals of economics. They have turned a blind eye to or actively stoked illegal tobacco trade through organised crime. That's pushed right through the Laffer curve, and there are now fewer legal cigarettes in the marketplace and less tax revenue. Now they're going to try exactly the same principle across the nation by shutting down businesses, actively discouraging reward of effort and incentive to get ahead, particularly targeting the many people who back themselves—the self-starters, the small businesses and those who are not going to be leaving or exiting because they have to pay more tax but because they see the decline in talent. In my lifetime I've never seen a government that has so rigidly and objectively tried to declare war on not just the country today but the future ambitions of Australians to get ahead for tomorrow. The impact of this government on Australians is going to be long, because its focus is solely on how it preserves and conserves its own power against the direct interests and advancement of the Australian people. But, more than anything else, this government is so broken because of where it sees its priorities.

The traditional model of redistribution is to take from the rich and to give to the poor. They like to dress themselves up as modern-day Robin Hoods, but the reality is completely different. This government has specialised redistribution, and its redistribution is to take from the Australian people and feed themselves. It's to prioritise their interests over the best interests and objectives of the Australian people, and what we've seen once they gain control of the hip pockets of Australians is how they dole the patronage out left, right and centre, without any accountability, to their friends and to their mates across the economy.

This government is not interested in the Australian people. This government is interested in themselves and their control. The brutal truth is they—let's just say to keep it parliamentary—break promises so easily, so calmly, so comfortably that someone could even inject another term instead of 'broken promises'. This government has never had any shame in understanding that truth is a luxury as their governance model.

Well, there is a future and there is hope. Australians do believe in and want to back themselves. They want to get ahead, and there is an opportunity to end this government and particularly its active inflation agenda. The governance model that the Treasurer has brought forward is to stoke inflation, tax inflation, spend the inflation and keep the cycle going. What they've done as a process is continuing to put upward pressure on interest rates. That can end. We can have an end to the inflation cycle this government is actively stoking if we have a government which has the courage to actually focus on ending the corruption and fraud in the NDIS, the courage to end the corruption and fraud in home aged-care packages, the courage to end the corruption and fraud in child care and the enrolment of children and, most importantly—and this is the one thing you will never see from a federal Labor or state Labor government—the courage to end the corruption in the CFMEU and, in particular, taking public money and handing it to organised crime. The fact that the Prime Minister sits in that chair and will not even audit whether federal public money finds its way into the hands of corrupt organised crime and the CFMEU is an embarrassment to his government, and every single Labor member should look at this government and feel embarrassed and ashamed to be associated with it.

We have seen it on the public record in the state of Victoria, and now that model is being nationalised across the country. It is a model that is anchored in corruption, a model that is built in stealing the money of the Australian people and the Victorian people and handing it to criminal networks, and it must end. But, even more than that, end the inflation cycle, which has meant that we have a government that acts as a silent thief shoving its hand into the hip pocket of Australians. That's why we're going to introduce our tax-back guarantee—so that $250 tax cut isn't some sort of luxury of a government but permanent and making sure the silent thieves in the night that are Labor governments can't get away with it again.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury) | Link to this | Hansard source

When the Leader of the Opposition became leader, getting rid of the first woman to head the Liberal Party, he said that his party needed to 'change or die'. I don't think many Australians thought that they were going to choose door 2, but that's what's happening right now. The modern Liberal Party won't change, and it's choosing to die. They won't change a system that's locked a generation of young Australians out of homeownership. They won't change their natural inclination, in a choice between opportunity and privilege, to back privilege every time. As the opposition leader himself might have said: 'Fantastic. Great move. Well done, Angus.'

The fact is that Labor is today introducing measures which are going to benefit millions of Australians, and so many of these measures have been opposed by the shadow treasurer. We are boosting minimum wages and award wages, benefiting more than three million Australians, and yet the shadow treasurer is on the record criticising the Fair Work Commission's decision to deliver a real wage increase to low-income workers. We're increasing wages for care workers, who'll benefit by around $59 a week. A registered nurse will benefit to the tune of about $86 a week. And yet the shadow treasurer has criticised better wages for frontline workers as 'borrowing from future generations'.

From today, workers will see payday super. They'll actually see money coming into their super accounts when it should. But the shadow treasurer has criticised universal superannuation, labelling it 'a form of economic social engineering' and 'a form of economic insanity'.

From today, Labor is putting in place six months of paid parental leave. But the shadow treasurer has called paid parental leave 'a very bad scheme', saying:

… that is not my choice that women have children; it's not. It's genetic.

From today, Labor is delivering tax cuts for every working Australian. Yet the shadow treasurer believes that we have to increase taxes on working Australians, having said:

… we have to move towards a simpler 20 per cent flat personal, company and consumption tax …

That's right; the shadow treasurer wants to double the GST.

From today, Labor is increasing funding to public hospitals by $25 billion. Yet the shadow treasurer has championed the privatisation of Medicare so there could be a 'transfer of the health-financing burden shifted from government to individuals'.

Labor is committed to reforms which will boost productivity. From today, we're going to see the $20,000 instant asset write-off become permanent, encouraging small businesses to invest. From today, we're banning price gouging by the big supermarkets, ensuring that those big supermarkets no longer charge excessive prices, as defined by the cost of supply plus a reasonable margin.

We've seen the coalition backing away from the sources of dynamism that have made Australia so prosperous over past decades. Multiculturalism is backed by 83 per cent of Australians, according to last year's Scanlon survey. Past Liberal leaders, such as Malcolm Turnbull and Malcolm Fraser, and leaders such as Philip Ruddock, Nick Greiner and Jeff Kennett have backed multiculturalism. But when asked the same question, the Leader of the Opposition said things like, 'I don't quite know what you mean by that question,' and, 'Do you want to define it for me?' and, 'There's all these vague words running around.' Asked seven times, he couldn't back in multiculturalism. As the saying goes, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Multiculturalism has been a key driver of Australia's success and is supported by four out of five Australians, yet the modern Liberal Party can't bring themselves to back it.

From the beginning of next year, Labor will be getting rid of non-compete clauses for nine out of 10 Australian workers, ensuring that they can move to a better job. Yet there's one kind of non-compete that those opposite are in favour of. The member for Barker, who, thankfully, is here in the House, has said he wants them to have their own 'non-compete clause' with One Nation. While John Howard said he would put One Nation last, the modern Liberal Party is a tribute act to One Nation. The modern Liberal Party want to collaborate with One Nation. They want a non-compete with One Nation. They don't believe in standing up against One Nation—well, maybe with one or two exceptions. But, basically, if you put Andrew Hastie off to one side, the modern Liberal Party are in favour of collaborating with One Nation.

And we've seen the scare campaigns being run by those opposite. One news report quoted by those opposite had a business leader saying that they were going to leave Australia because 'China provides a better life than Australia right now, so I was thinking about going back.' But when quizzed by Media Watch as to whether it was really the effect of the budget, he said:

No it's not just the budget. That's just a small thing … The bigger part is … the infrastructure and our cost of living, that's the main thing …

So is he going to move back? 'Well,' he said, 'I have to let my daughter finish school first.' How old is she? She's nine years old. So he'll go back to China when she finishes year 12? Well, maybe, or when she finishes university, which, according to Media Watch, makes it 2037.

Another critic quoted in the same story, business leader Phillip Wang, said:

… the government's tax changes would continue to drive capital and innovation out of the country.

Asked how the Telegraph found him, he said:

I got a phone call from a friend in the Liberal Party … They asked around to see who's willing to take that call.

Oddly, given those opposite have been complaining about the level of net overseas migration, you'd think they might be quite happy about some Liberal Party members saying they're going to move overseas. But, in fact, they're happy to run these scare campaigns on the measures in the budget which are ensuring that we boost homeownership, which are all about driving productivity.

For small business, we've changed the R&D tax credit so that every dollar of R&D tax credit drives 20 per cent more research and development. For Australians who are looking to afford medicines, the health minister has been putting a record number of drugs through the PBS and driving record funding through our hospital system. We've made urgent care clinics permanent. We are ensuring that the productivity benefits that come from a healthier workforce flow to more Australians. Labor's competition reform agenda will not only make it easier for Australians to move to a better job but also drive competition through the National Competition Policy in a compact with states and territories. We will ensure that reforms such as planning, zoning and growth boosting will be enhanced. We will ensure that it's easier for Australians to work across state and territory borders by getting rid of unnecessary occupational licensing rules. Our negative gearing and capital gains tax changes ensure that all small businesses have access to the capital gains tax exemptions and that 98 per cent of all businesses have access to those exemptions.

We are driving reforms which will see the government contribute to some 420,000 new homes, and the tax changes in the budget will see another 75,000 Australians own their own home. Labor believes in the same values that once used to be bipartisan. Back in the days of Chifley and Menzies, we had two parties in this country committed to homeownership. But the Liberal Party is now the party which is arguing against tax changes, which, as people like Joe Hockey and Dom Perrottet have pointed out, are necessary if we are to allow young Australians to break into the property market.

So, at the next election, the coalition will go to the Australian people promising to roll back our changes. To be quite clear about what that means, they will be going to the Australian people calling for the reinstatement of huge tax breaks for investors that will reduce homeownership and will be paid for by higher taxes and worse services. It'll be the last election all over again, when the member for Hume was the shadow treasurer, championing policies that saw the Liberal Party promising to the Australian people to increase their taxes and deliver higher deficits, to fund policies such as taxpayer funded long lunches for bosses. We've seen this movie before. The Liberal Party went to the 1987 election promising to repeal the capital gains tax and fringe benefits tax. They never did it, and they will fail again to roll back Labor's reform agenda, delivered in the interests of all Australians.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm going to be a little bit more positive. I believe we live in the greatest country on earth, and I think everybody in this chamber would absolutely endorse what I just said. I believe our best days are ahead of us. And they certainly are. The member for Fenner was rather negative in his comments. First of all, he spoke of just the two parties. But you had Artie Fadden leading the Country Party, a former prime minister, dare I say, at a time when, yes, housing was a big issue, like it is now—he mentioned the new drugs on the PBS. I do thank the health minister, who's at the table, because every new drug on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is saving lives. Every single drug is saving lives. And the member for Hunter, who has just left the chamber, is doing some good work in the space of men and boys, as a special envoy in that regard. We all come to this place trying to make the country a better place. But this matter of public importance is about the government driving the fall of living standards of Australians. Sadly, that is true.

Let me just give you some examples, because we need to be doing so much better than what is being offered at the moment. First of all, we've got veterans. I appreciate that this morning we had the minister giving a very good speech at the establishment of not just the Veteran and Family Wellbeing Agency but also the Parliamentary Friends of Veterans. But the $5,000 allied health cap is going to lead to a fall in living standards for veterans. The government says that it will consult over the next 12 months. The consultation should have happened before the budget; unfortunately, it didn't. Now the government is playing catch-up, as it always does.

House prices are plummeting right across the board, in every market. Both regional and metropolitan house prices are falling. And we've seen the biggest slump in property values in four years. That's simply not good enough, particularly for somebody who purchased a property just prior to the budget, when they wouldn't have expected or thought about what was going to happen during the budget, given what the government said and the promises the Prime Minister made before the election. The Prime Minister promised one thing, and the Treasurer delivered another. And this is at a time when construction companies are going bankrupt in record numbers. Not only are construction companies going bankrupt but also building approvals declined 1.1 per cent in May, and that's the third successive monthly fall on Labor's watch. It's simply not good enough.

Then we look at the transport sector. We've got trucking companies going bankrupt and backwards at a rate that we haven't seen for some time. When you've got a group such as Don Watson closing after operating for 77 years, and Ron Crouch Transport in Wagga Wagga, a generational family trucking company, going into administration, it's simply not good enough. Transport operators are becoming insolvent in alarming numbers. It's not just that. In Victoria just this year we've had four caravan manufacturers also go into administration. What is happening?

But we hear the Minister for Small Business going on and on about how good things are for small business. Well, they're not; they're simply not. The Future Made in Australia manufacturing policy that Labor spruiks is just a fallacy. It is just a joke. We've got forestry products being imported at a rate never seen before because we are locking up our regeneration—our forestry sectors. When you have local economies such as Snowy Valleys Council, where 70 per cent of its gross shire product relies on forestry, and then you've got a government doing so much to inhibit and stop forestry happening, it is just a joke.

We've heard so much about child care because it's 1 July. Good luck in regional Australia, where there's a childcare desert. We've heard the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors in the last couple of question times—yesterday and the day before—going on about home-care packages. They're simply so hard to get that people are dying waiting for them. It's not good enough.

Then we've got the rorting in the NDIS. Yes, the government said it's doing something about it, but you talk to NDIS operators, particularly in regional Australia—but more importantly, perhaps, those families who are so vulnerable and the children expecting those services that cannot get those services. Yes, we need to clamp down on shoddy operators, but it's not the shoddy operators who are going to miss out. It's the vulnerable children. We can be so much better than this. We should be so much better than this. We must be so much better than this.

Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, 1 July, is an important day. Mark it in your diaries. I do want to thank the shadow treasurer for bringing this matter of public importance to us, because it gives us on this side of the House an opportunity to talk about all the changes that are coming in today, because today all Australians get more help. Today, every taxpayer gets another tax cut. Today, over three million workers get a pay rise, and today paid parental leave will expand to a full six months. Today, Medicare urgent care clinics become a permanent part of our healthcare system. Today, small businesses get the certainty of a permanent $20,000 instant asset write-off. Today, payday super begins, so workers' super is paid with their wages, not left sitting in an employer's account for months. Today, we take stronger action on supermarkets that are price gouging. Today, Australians can access three hours of free energy through our solar sharer program. Today, the Albanese government says to all Australians that we are working hard to help you. More than 14 million taxpayers get another tax cut.

But what did the coalition do when the tax package came before the parliament? What did they do? They opposed it. I know the member for Lindsay has suggested that the Liberal Party ought to rebrand. My reaction to that—and I'm going to be as parliamentary as possible here—is that you can't polish turd. There's no dressing up a dud political party. If you vote against tax cuts for all Australian taxpayers, if you vote against helping first home buyers to buy their first home, if you vote against super on government funded paid parental leave, if you vote against payday super, if you vote against same job, same pay, then you are voting against all Australians. That tells you everything about the modern Liberal Party. And there is no rebranding, no new name, no new logo that is going to fix a party that is rotten to the core.

While we on this side of the House supported a pay increase for those on the minimum wage, helping around three million workers, the Liberal Party opposed that wage increase for our lowest paid workers. They spent nearly a decade telling Australians that low wages were a deliberate design feature of their economic policy. No rebranding is going to change that. While Labor is strengthening Medicare, increasing bulk-billing rates and making Medicare urgent care clinics a permanent part of our healthcare system, the Liberal Party froze the Medicare rebate and they wanted to introduce a GP tax. Again, no rebranding is going to change that.

The Liberal Party are now becoming the Enron and Kodak of brands. They are badly damaged and irreparable and will be a footnote in history. One Nation is no better, because let's remember what we've seen from Senator Hanson in the past few weeks. She opposed paid parental leave, and then she sort of supported it but not really. I think it's because she fundamentally doesn't understand what it is. It isn't a welfare measure. It is good economic policy because it keeps parents connected to work, it supports women's participation and it gives parents more time with their children. Today is a great day because we are saying to parents, 'We want you to spend more time at home with your children.' We are expanding the government's paid parental leave to 26 weeks. That's more cuddles, more kisses—a lot more sleepless nights! But it's a great thing for our country.

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting for Fisheries and Forestry) | Link to this | Hansard source

It's true to say that today's an important day. It's a day when our nation turns an important page. I do, just as an aside, have to query why those opposite would spend the majority of their contributions obsessing over the Liberal Party on such an important day—on a day when they could be talking about what those opposite are actually achieving. But it is the first day of a new financial year. Predictably, the Prime Minister and his treasurer have been out spruiking their tax cuts—a paltry $5 a week. Those opposite don't spend their time talking about this because they know that it is insignificant and it has been monstered by inflation. It's evaporated before it's even turned up.

I've got to say that, during question time, I do sometimes turn off as the Prime Minister is preening his feathers, giving us the 'never had it better' speech, luxuriating in his hubris. Those opposite would do well to look up at the galleries during question time, because the people in the galleries get it—they know that grocery prices have gone up, they know fuels have gone up, they know rent's gone up. Do you know what else they know, Madam Deputy Speaker Claydon? They know who to blame for it. It is the unbridled spending of those opposite that is putting pressure on Australians via inflation, because those opposite don't have a plan for it. Do you know how I know those in the galleries know this?

Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Sky News!

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting for Fisheries and Forestry) | Link to this | Hansard source

No, not Sky. I spent my time earlier today looking at the Prime Minister's Facebook page. I thought, 'Yes, this is a place I'll go to.' It's an important day, changing the page historically here in Australia. He's there spruiking his tax cuts, and, in the comments, real Australians out there in the real world have had something to say about that. Let's have a look at those. We've got one contributor who said:

One hand gives … the other one takes more than what was given …

Another contributor said:

If delusion was a person he would be it.

Another contributor said:

Cool story.

Extra $10 a week—

I've got bad news for this contributor; it's actually only five bucks—

just went into extra $12 diesel to get to work.

Another contributor said:

Using supermarket specials tactics.

I like that one in particular. We're back to this:

Give with one hand take with the other.

A contributor says:

You mean give with one and take double with the other.

Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I've tuned out; are you reading Facebook comments?

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting for Fisheries and Forestry) | Link to this | Hansard source

These are real Australians who are telling you—I can see some nods in the gallery; they get it. Those opposite really don't want to hear this, but you should hear it. Andrew Brown contributed:

Increase the tax free threshold significantly you you REALLY want to give Australian workers a tax break.

That's an endorsement for the tax-back guarantee that we announced on budget in reply night. There are other contributors:

… the comedy act continues.

It's gotten to the point that the Prime Minister of this country is regarded as a joke. While we're talking about jokes, there's a whole theme that comes through the comments:

April fools was a couple of months ago.

It's 1 July, and they're thinking, 'Maybe he's talking about 1 April.' Then I found some support for the Prime Minister's position. Bobby Bingham said:

$5 ! sweet that provides financial relief.

Then I realised that actually he was being sarcastic. I wasn't great at English lit, but this is my personal favourite. Geordie Askew said:

We all feel like Oliver.

Please sir, can I have some more?

And that's the point for those opposite. Those opposite listen to a prime minister during question time who's saying, 'We're here to help.' But the people in the galleries, Australians, are saying, 'If this is helping, can you please do us a favour and just stop.' It's not help if it actually hurts.

Julie-Ann Campbell (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I do want to inform the people in the gallery just a little bit about the member for Barker's track record when it comes to helping everyday Australians. When taking 20 per cent off student debt came before this House—a saving to the average student of over $5,000—the member for Barker voted against it. When not one, not two, not three, not four but five tax cuts came before this parliament, the member for Barker voted against every single one of them. And what those tax cuts mean is an extra $2,800 in the pocket of the average Australian. That's a lot of money.

Under our legislation, under this budget, 75,000 people who haven't been able to get into their first home will be able to get into their very first home. What did the member for Barker do? He voted against it. At our urgent care clinics, all you have to do is rock up with your Medicare card and you'll get the treatment that you need, and there are 137 of them across our nation. What did the member for Barker do? He voted against it. Our $25 medicines are taking medicines back to the prices they were decades ago. What did the member for Barker do? He voted against it.

When I was preparing to come here and talk about this MPI, I did something that I do not recommend to you. I imagined a world where the shadow treasurer—the member for Goldstein and the mover of this MPI today—was in charge. In doing so, there are a few things I think that we should make very clear. Firstly, what we know if the member for Goldstein were in charge is that everything would be more expensive. In fact, we know by how much because we know that the member for Barker would put a 20 per cent consumption tax on. How do we know that? Because the member for Goldstein said:

… we have to move towards a simpler 20 per cent flat personal, company and consumption tax …

We know what would happen because bulk-billing would be out the window. How do we know that? Because the shadow treasurer said:

transfer of the health financing burden shifted from government to individuals—

When he was championing the privatisation of Medicare. Your mortgage payments would be higher if the member for Goldstein were in charge. How do we know? Because he said:

Nobody wins from low interest rates …

What about making things in this country and manufacturing? We know that would be out the window too. He said:

The days of Australia being an island continent producing finished goods for domestic consumption are over.

Finally, what about staying at home with your baby in the first important months of their life? Not on the member for Goldstein's watch. He said:

It's a very bad scheme … it's not my choice that women my choice that women have children. It's genetic!

We don't really have to imagine what this would be like because we've got the verbal receipts, provided by the shadow Treasurer's worst enemy—the member for Goldstein!

I don't want to spend the rest of my time talking about the member for Goldstein's greatest hits because Australians are doing it tough. They've also been impacted by a global conflict that's having an impact on our prices here at home. That's why this government is investing in them, and it's why today is an important day. Today, the Albanese Labor government is delivering more paid parental leave. Award wages are going up by 4.75 per cent, and the minimum wage is going up by six per cent. Superannuation will be paid when it is earned. Supermarket price gouging will be banned, and tax cuts will be delivered to every single taxpayer in Australia.

Normally, I'd say to look at what those opposite do, not what they say. (Time expired)

Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

This Friday is 3 July, and it is the 12-month anniversary of the swearing-in of the class of 2025. It is a momentous occasion for that class among us. One of the things I've enjoyed most over the last 12 months is going around to schools and talking to them about our system of government, about democracy and about why we have the best system anywhere in the world. One of those features is the accountability and transparency of functions like question time where you can make the Prime Minister of the day accountable on a range of things.

I have to say, the preening, the back-patting and the smirking that's been on display from this Prime Minister every single day this week and every other week while Australians in my electorate suffer causes me to say that people deserve so much better.

I'll give you a couple of examples. I've got a constituent right now who's living with her abuser in fear because leaving means she will be separated from her special needs son and pets, and she cannot afford to move out. There are a couple living in a tent in a stranger's driveway in my electorate, and they cannot afford anywhere to rent on their $450-per-week budget.

There's an elderly couple in South Gippsland who can't afford to turn on their heating. When support workers visit, they're offered a blanket and the couple apologise for how cold it is in their house. There's a woman in my electorate who's separated from her partner and needs to live in the same house while she waits for Centrelink and child support to process her payments. This is not good enough. She's relying on food bank payments to get by at the moment because she can't afford to eat. For all the smirking and the back-patting and the preening that this prime minister carries on with, Australians right now deserve so much better from their government.

Look at health. After two decades of progressing private health insurance as a more affordable way for older Australians, the cut to the private health rebate has hurt these people deeply. More than three million Australians over the age of 65 have health insurance. More than 900,000 of these Australians live on less than $55,000. They are not wealthy. They have worked hard. They have saved hard. They have done the right thing. They have tried to take some burden off the system, and goodness knows that right now our hospitals are bursting at the seams thanks to state and federal Labor government mismanagement. These people deserve better, and the cut to the health insurance rebate will hurt these people. It will burden our public hospitals.

I go to the CFMEU. The corruption in Victoria has cost taxpayers at least $15 billion. Sarah Ferguson on the ABC asked the Prime Minister a pretty straightforward question. She asked him whether he had requested of the Premier of Victoria any assurances that Commonwealth funding on infrastructure projects wasn't going to organised crime. I asked the Prime Minister in question time, and he was evasive again—more smirking, more, back-patting and more preening.

On energy, between 2023 and June 2025, power costs surged 27 per cent above the consumer price index. I have families in my electorate who are staring at an energy bill stuck to their fridge, looking at the groceries they have to buy that week and making a decision on which one they're going to be able to pay, because they can't afford to pay for both. These people deserve a serious Prime Minister. They deserve a serious government. They deserve better than jokes and snide remarks.

On inflation, we're sitting at four per cent. It's well outside the RBA's recommended band of two to three per cent. The previous governor, Philip Lowe, and many other people have said that this is a home-grown problem. In other words, spending by government is driving much of this. At what point, after a few years of sitting well outside this recommended ban, are we going to have a serious national conversation about inflation and the impact that it's having on the cost of living? At what point do we just roll on for another couple of years under this government, with inflation bubbling along above that band? Debt is about to pass $1 trillion. Look at the debt of Victoria, where I'm from—and I'm a proud, passionate Victorian; I love my state. Right now, Victoria's got a combined debt of more than— (Time expired)

Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The world changed. Things that we didn't think could happen happened. A war on the other side of the planet impacted supply lines. Facebook changed the way we gathered information, changed the way we got our fuel, changed the way we got our fertiliser. This was potentially a crisis—a crisis that changed the way we had to approach business, a crisis that changed the way we approached the nation. So our government stepped in and did what it needed to do. It made sure the fuel arrived, made sure our truckies trucked, made sure our aeroplanes flew, made sure our valuable farmers got the crops into the ground to provide the food that we need to improve our exports and to keep Australia moving.

Tourism continued. People came and enjoyed the Great Barrier Reef, which now, with its additional environmental protections, will stay great. But what did those opposite do during this time? They talked it down, called for rationing and scared people. There was a marked decrease in tourism leading into Easter because words matter. But so do actions, and, on this side of the House, we do actions. Today is a great day for actions.

Paid parental leave—26 weeks. I spent a year with my little ones. There was no paid parental leave for me back then. That is the hardest work I've ever done in my life. A two-year-old and a newborn do not care for your wellbeing or your mental health, but I valued that time with them. I really did. I got to teach them to eat and watch their first steps. It was a time that I cherished so much, and we're giving that to families. They don't have to make that choice: work or family. You should have both. You deserve both. Australians deserve both.

The minimum wage is increasing by 4.75 per cent. That is a noticeable difference. People will feel that that in their hip pockets, and that money will flow on. People will have the confidence to go take the kids to a movie and make sure that the birthday party goes the way that it should. It is a fantastic thing. We will always back workers because the best form of cost-of-living relief is a job. That is why we can celebrate having the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. For my intern Claudia, 50 years is before I was born! I am not 50. I am 47.

We're putting downward pressure on electricity prices. The home battery system is working. It is removing demand from the system and increasing supply. For too long, nothing was done about power supply in this country. It was completely ignored. It was, as Senator Bragg said, a vacated space for 20 years.

If you go back three years before the space was vacated, you get $25 scripts, something that we have proudly bought back in so people once again are not making a decision between health and food. Sometimes, particularly if you're on mental health pills, you cannot miss those scripts. They're very, very important. The surety to know how much they're going to cost and that they're not to be an impost, particularly now with 60-day scripts as well, makes life a bit easier. It makes that budgeting a little bit easier and makes keeping on keeping on that little bit easier.

We're bringing in tax cuts for every single working Australian. The average worker will be up to $2,800 a year better off. That's a holiday. That is a holiday in beautiful Far North Queensland with a trip to the reef and out to the Daintree and to the crocodile farm! That is what we're delivering: cost-of-living relief and great holidays in the Far North! I'm proud of what we've done here in our 12 months. I'm proud of what was done by this government before we got here, and I'm looking forward to how great this nation is going to be because we're going to put more first home owners into their own homes. They will own a piece of Australia. They will know that the country is theirs, and we will move on together.