Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor cannot manage money, so they continue to come after yours. The average Australian's paying 39 per cent more tax under this government. Since Labor was elected, Australia suffered the biggest fall in living standards in the developed world. No matter how much spin and nonsense you get from the other side, they cannot avoid that fact—the biggest fall in living standards in the developed world. This goes to the heart of their failure. Every day brings another cost hit under this government. Fees, charges, household costs and fuel are all going up or being indexed. This inflation is Labor's silent but deadly tax.

The government has kept inflation way above the target band of two to three per cent for way too long. It is still sitting at four per cent. It's lifting prices, inflating government charges and pushing hardworking Australians into paying more tax. While Labor profits from this inflation, their tax cuts do not keep up. At 70c a day, they won't even buy a cup of coffee a week. In contrast, at the current inflation rate, our tax-back guarantee would give a typical worker $400 back automatically each and every year.

Living standards have collapsed, GDP per person has gone backwards, migration is running at around 2½ times higher than it was under the coalition and power bills are up 40 per cent. Meanwhile, Labor's record spending means the budget is forecast to be in debt and deficit for a decade, with debt about to pass $1 trillion. Imagine sitting around the dining table with your family and telling them, 'We're going to spend more money than we receive every year for the next 10 years.' You wouldn't. In fact, you can't, yet that's exactly what this Labor government and this Treasurer are doing. To pay for this, they deploy toxic taxes, assaulting aspiration. They are locking young Australians out of the opportunities afforded to older generations, by whacking taxes on savings, investment and small businesses. Australians work harder than ever, yet fall further and further behind.

While we are talking about standards, it's not just standards of living that have fallen under Labor's integrity standards. Look no further than the Matt Kean issue, which simply does not pass the pub test. Mr Kean was personally chosen by the Prime Minister to lead the Climate Change Authority. It has now been revealed that he spent over $32,000 on one single trip to Brazil last year for an international climate conference. During this trip, Mr Kean appeared on a panel alongside executives of Woolemi Capital, despite being an executive of that very same private investment firm himself. I agree with my colleague the member for Wannon, Dan Tehan. He cannot remain chair of the public Climate Change Authority while concurrently serving in this private firm.

At the very least, the perception of a conflict of interest warrants an investigation. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, needs to explain how he allowed the situation to fester, what action he has taken and if he still holds confidence in Mr Kean. Sending mates on exotic overseas trips on the taxpayers' dime during a cost-of-living crisis is an absolute gross waste.

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

The Minister for Skills and Training, on a point of order?

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance, the matter of public importance has nothing to do with this, and I think the member should be careful about using this place to make these sorts of allegations.

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

I do remind the member that the topic of the MPI, which was put by the member for Goldstein, is the government driving the fall of the living standards of Australia. You need to bring your speech back to that, please.

Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

We are talking about falling living standards, government spending and government taxation, which brings me to the CFMEU issues in talking about dropping standards. The Prime Minister claims no tolerance for corruption in government spending, but Australians have no reason to believe him. The government knew of at least four allegations of corruption on the Suburban Rail Loop, yet handed another $3.8 billion to this project. Why? This exposes taxpayer money to fraud and organised crime. If they truly had zero tolerance, they would not have buddied up with the Greens and blocked our Senate inquiry.

Matt Gregg (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Where do I begin? We start with the member for Goldstein making up quotes to be outraged by, reciting tired old campaign lines from a party fast approaching the abyss. Then we had the member for Barker highlighting what the Liberal Party has become: a live-action version of the Facebook comments section—watch an hour of Credlin, then to the computer with caps lock key down, ready to let the rage out. Finally, we have an attack on a former Liberal treasurer, a personal attack with nothing to do with the MPI, highlighting that the coalition has truly become the blockbuster video of Australian politics.

Now, let's talk about the challenges faced by the Australian people: a quadrupling of house prices over two decades, unresolved by the Liberal Party in government; and we had 4.1 gigawatts out of baseload energy, unresponded to by the coalition government. We've seen long-term challenges unaddressed—aged care, where neglect over a decade was unresolved, because, apparently, an ageing population was completely unpredictable. Then, we had failures in child care and pretty much every area of service. We had sovereign energy capability decline. We saw oil processing down, which left us, after a year of coalition, more vulnerable.

They don't lead. They preside. The born-to-rule brigade sat there for nine years and achieved absolutely nothing on behalf of the Australian people—compulsive underachievement for nine years consecutively. Then, suddenly, they come into this chamber as if all challenges faced by society came out of nowhere and are all Labor's fault. It's complete nonsense.

We are responding to the issue of energy shortages by developing a 21st-century grid, because we know that energy is the key to future productivity and success. Productivity has been a focus of this budget. We are focusing tax incentives towards productive investments rather than continued house price inflation. We're supporting small businesses and startups. We've got the permanence of the $20,000 instant asset write-off. We've got loss carry back, and we have tax refunds for new-start businesses so they have the capital to get started and succeed. This is a government focused on the future and focused on actually resolving the challenges faced by the Australian people rather than whinging about them and going on template tirades which solve absolutely nothing.

The coalition then have the gall to say, 'Oh, look, the coalition's less popular. Why?' Apparently, it's Labor's fault that people don't like the coalition much anymore! There's a complete lack of insight. We see why, from the member for Barker—their world is Facebook. As I say to my loved ones, it's bad for your mental health, and it will completely diminish your sense of reality, if that is where you get your wisdom from. I would suggest something novel. How about talking about solutions, talking to real people and learning to listen to the Australian people and their demand for change?

Change is what the Labor government is delivering. We are making difficult decisions that actually address the challenges faced by Australians. We don't just sit here proud of the status quo; we come here to make a difference. It's very easy to come in and make statements. What is difficult is change. We are ready to do the hard work, and we've got a caucus committed to making a difference to the people in our electorates and the people in their electorates as well. We know that this isn't just about presiding; it is about taking on responsibility and making the differences needed so that tomorrow can be better than yesterday.

We're not going to spend a decade doing nothing. We are not going to allow the challenges faced by Australia to double and continue compounding over time. We are going to confront them on behalf of the Australian people, to make sure that they can be optimistic that the future is going to be better. We make absolutely no apologies for that.

Today, 1 July—despite me sounding a little angry—is actually a very good day. It's a very good day! Every taxpayer is getting a tax cut. We've got the $250 worker tax offset. We've now got a simpler tax system; there is the $1,000 instant tax deduction. We've now got award wages increasing. We've got the minimum wage increasing from today. Today is an excellent day! Urgent care clinics are becoming permanent. This is a fantastic day for Australia, and we should celebrate it.

We're injecting more money into public hospitals—$25 billion—because health care matters and this is a party dedicated to health. We are going to make sure that those services continue to improve and meet the needs of the Australian people, and we make no apologies for that. There will be no tirades. There will be no attacks against members of our party or their party or anything like that. This isn't going to be just an abuse of parliamentary privilege. We are going to talk about the Australian people and what we are going to do to make their lives better.

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

The time for this discussion has concluded.