Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Gallagher for bringing this MPI before us today, because for Labor it represents another own goal. MPI after MPI, question after question, the opposition are so bereft of ideas and inspiration for this nation that they continue to give us the opportunities to put on record our positive agenda for all Australians. I think I speak for all on this side in saying thank you very much indeed to those opposite.

This government is tackling cost-of-living pressures for Australian households, taking action to ease the strain in areas like tax, energy, housing and childcare costs. We are getting on with the job of implementing the plan that the Australian people voted for on 18 May. They voted for us to lower taxes so that they can keep more of what they earn. They voted to reduce the costs of doing business—reducing energy costs and fast-tracking deregulation. They voted to keep our budget strong and to guarantee the essential services that all of us rely upon. They voted for a higher standard of living and lower costs.

Labor may have changed their leader, but they haven't changed their policies. Australians will never forget the high-taxing, job-destroying, nation-weakening agenda that they took to the election. Labor are still the party of $387 billion of higher taxes—higher taxes on housing, higher taxes on superannuation, higher taxes on income, higher taxes on retirees and higher taxes on family businesses. Today, the AFR reports that Labor plan to create even more taxes to pay for their planned increase to Newstart. They're only interested in hitting Australians in the hip pocket, taking more of their hard-earned money so that they can create their version of a socialist utopia.

Whilst Australians were ultimately spared that fate, many in my home state of Western Australia are feeling the pressure of living under a Labor state government—a government that was elected saying one thing and is now doing the complete opposite. The McGowan government has slugged the people of Western Australia with household increases of $850 per year since being elected despite promising not to. They have targeted vulnerable families with increased charges and taxes, including a 10.9 per cent increase in the electricity supply charge in their first budget. The number of electricity disconnections for people who cannot afford to pay their electricity bill has gone up; it has reached a record 20,000. How did they respond? They cut the cost-of-living rebate for seniors and forced people in hardship to wait 180 days before they could receive Hardship Utility Grant Scheme payments. But wait, there's more. In their second budget, they increased by 40 per cent the cost of water consumption over 50,000 kilolitres per year. The Premier and his minister have tried to portray this as targeting the rich. However, the data clearly shows that it targets large families, multigenerational families and large properties in the outer suburbs—those who are doing it the toughest.

Under the McGowan state government, Western Australian families are struggling with high unemployment, falling house prices, the highest negative equity in the country and high levels of mortgage default. What happened to the plan for jobs which was going to deliver an employment bonanza of 50,000 jobs? I guess we'll never know. The McGowan government's mean-spirited cost-of-living increases come at a time when it is receiving a windfall gain of billions of dollars from the Morrison government's GST fix and high iron ore prices. Contrast this to the Liberal-National government's record on economic management and its remarkable achievement. Australia has completed its 28th consecutive year of annual economic growth. The people of Western Australia are acutely aware of what it's like to live under a Labor government. So, before those opposite come in here and lecture us, they should look at their own side first.