Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Senator Evans) to a question without notice asked by Senator Coonan today relating to the cost of living.

Francis Bacon said, ‘Trust not servants who mislead you,’ and it is very clear that the Australian public cannot trust Mr Rudd and the Labor government, because the public were misled at the last election. They were misled in a number of areas but principally they were misled that the Rudd government was going to do something about rising grocery prices, that the Rudd government was going to do something about rising fuel prices and that the Rudd government was going to do something about rising gas prices. They were not misled that the Rudd government was going to do something about rising house prices, because it has engineered an economic slowdown that has seen the price of houses fall for people, leaving many in a situation of negative mortgage equity.

This is a government that cannot be trusted. They have succeeded in failing all the tests put before them by the Australian people. What has Mr Rudd done about this? Mr Rudd has done a Pontius Pilate: he has washed his hands of any responsibility by saying, ‘We have done as much as we physically can to help the family budget.’ Ms Macklin, the minister for families, has acknowledged that people are doing it very tough. In a recent opinion piece, she said:

Pensioners are doing it tough. With the cost of food, electricity, gas and petrol going up it’s getting harder and harder for people on pensions to pay the bills. They tell me time and time again how difficult it is ...

My message to the government is this: the people of Australia have also been telling me about the hard heart that lies at the very core of this government. They say that the government do not care about the plight that many, who are doing it tough on fixed incomes, are dealing with and that the government have given up on trying to redress the imbalance that they suffer at a time when inflation is rising—and it is the highest it has been in 16 years. And what is the Rudd government’s solution to rising inflation? They put the prices of things up.

Anyone who knows a little bit about economics knows that inflation is measured by rising prices. Putting prices up does not solve any issues with inflation; it contributes to it. It is a disgraceful clutch, a grab, at money to put extra pressure on Australian families so that the Rudd government can put more money in its coffers for its own re-election at a later time. All the while that this government fiddles, the finances of the pensioners and carers of Australia are burning, let me tell you.

In nine months of the government, who have to take ownership of these problems because they have handed down their own budget, they initially sought to take away the one-off bonus payments to pensioners and carers, to the great shame of many. The only possible things that they have implemented are to put up the utilities allowance and the telephone allowance, both of which were copied from coalition policies of the last election. They have done nothing else; there is nothing new. They were elected on the basis of having a plan. They have no coherent plan. They have a plan to have a plan at some stage in the future. We know that pensioners are doing it tough and we know that carers are doing it tough, but nothing is being done by this very tough and careless government. They have promised that, once again, they will have a look at these things but they have not done it. They have no real strategy about dealing with it until 2010. They are having review after review. This is what the people of Australia tell me when they stop me in the street: ‘Will you please replace this uncaring government? Will you please get back into control of Treasury so you can help us out over the course of time?’ This government have not assisted anyone who is doing it really tough.

Whilst they have not made any meaningful impact on assisting people, they have managed to spend millions upon millions of dollars on telling people, through a website, what prices were 30 days ago. I guess this is so they can track inflation themselves, by calculating the cost of goods today versus the cost of goods 30 days ago. I read the other day that the much vaunted GroceryWatch website is now getting less than a few hundred thousand hits, mostly, I guess, to see if all the ridicule of it is quite appropriate. There are already calls for it to be shut down. They are a government who allegedly care. What they care about is spin, and they have no substance whatsoever.

What about their claim that fuel prices were going to drop under this government? Fuel prices reached record highs under this government, and what did the government promise to do? Nothing. It was up to the coalition to champion the cause and fight against high fuel prices for the men and women of Australia, including pensioners, who are doing it tough. What else have the government done to ease the cost of living for people? As perverse as it may sound, they are trumpeting today how many new jobs have been created in the manufacturing sector, and yet in their budget they were forecasting that over 100,000 jobs would be lost—they have budgeted for 100,000 jobs to be lost. I note that an additional estimate, I think put out by the RBA— (Time expired)