Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

I do so with particular attention paid to answers given by Senator Minchin and Senator Scullion in relation to the cost of living and the increase in the cost of living and with particular reference to my question to Senator Scullion about the increased pressure on first home buyers and homeowners in Australia and the rise in the cost of their mortgages as a result of interest rate hikes. But perhaps I should start my comments today by referencing new data released showing that many families are facing cost of living pressures that are well in excess of what is implied by the average consumer price growth.

Today’s ABS data shows that the living costs of families have increased by some 3.1 per cent over the last 12 months, one whole percentage point higher than growth in the consumer price index. Over the last five years, we know that the CPI has increased by 14.5 per cent, but according to today’s Australian Bureau of Statistics data the living costs have increased by 18 per cent for employee households, 15.8 per cent for aged pensioners and 16.6 per cent for households receiving government benefits, showing that all of these groups of people—families, pensioners and people receiving benefits and everyone in the mix there—are enduring far greater costs of living than is recognised by the CPI increase.

Over the same five-year time frame, prices for many household essentials have also skyrocketed. Fruit and vegetable prices have increased by 41.9 per cent, education costs have increased by 32.6 per cent, health costs have increased by 31 per cent, housing costs have increased by 20.6 per cent and child-care costs have risen by a massive 88 per cent. Apart from these steep increases in costs of living, one of the reasons why the cost of living pressures are outstripping the CPI is that the CPI does not include mortgage interest repayments.

Today’s data partly reflects the impact on household budgets of Mr Howard’s broken interest rate promise following nine rate rises despite his promise to keep rates at record lows. This data, of course, shows even more evidence of how deeply out of touch Mr Howard and his government are with the realities of many household budgets. It is for that reason that I was surprised to see the very aggressive, arrogant and desperate response by Senator Minchin and Senator Scullion to questions asked by the Labor opposition today in question time. I think such a rant would have been found to be offensive by anyone listening who is enduring these cost pressures within their household and struggling to manage their household budget.

I think the questions asked by Labor today really do highlight that this government is living in a different universe, a universe that has no connection with the reality of Australian households. There is no possible way you can equate all of those increases in the cost of living with the general rhetoric emanating from the Howard government saying that workers and families have never been better off. That is not how the working people of Australia—and, indeed, pensioners and those in need of our support—are feeling at all. They are feeling the pinch, and the cost of living is making their lives harder and harder.

I think it is very interesting when you add in even more stresses on the household budget—a 53 per cent increase in petrol prices over the last five years, a 25 per cent increase in bread prices, a 60 per cent increase in the price of butter and, as I said, a 41.9 per cent increase in the price of fruit and vegetables. All these things start to really compound on the household pressure. The Labor Party is the only party that has some practical suggestions and policies that go to the heart of reducing inflationary pressures in the Australian economy and, indeed, specific programs to improve things like household affordability and far greater scrutiny by the ACCC on things like grocery and petrol prices to hopefully bring into check some of those unreasonable price hikes that have occurred because of the Howard government’s failure to pay any interest at all to what can be done by government to shine a spotlight on increases of that nature.

It is very easy to relate the cost of this increased pressure to the impact of Work Choices. We now know, based on information received today, that workers in retail and hospitality—some of our most vulnerable—have been worst hit by the effects of the government’s extreme industrial relations. (Time expired)