Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This reminds me, Senator Hughes—and I suspect that we've both watched this show, and I won't start commenting on people's age, but I'm going to show my age again—of The West Wing. It was one of my favourite shows; it still is. There's the left-wing President of the United States who bombs other countries, and then one day Josh Lyman is called up by the press secretary to take over in the press room of the White House, and the media force him to admit that they have a secret plan to fight inflation. This government is channelling Josh Lyman. It must have a secret plan to fight inflation, because it's certainly not telling the Australian people what the plan is. So the Australian people can come to two conclusions. They can conclude that the Labor government either has a secret plan to fight inflation or has no plan to fight inflation, because the left hand is not talking to the right hand, or, should I say, the left wing is not talking to the right wing of the Labor Party.

On the one hand, they're promoting wages growth, which will obviously have an impact on inflation. Senator Wong knows that wages growth and inflation are linked. Without productivity increases, wages growth will fuel inflation. It's as simple as that. Without downward pressure on energy prices—which there is no sign of under the current government's policy settings—we're going to see flow-on impacts through the economy and further inflationary pressures on the economy.

It's important that the Australian people recognise the fact that we need a government that takes a fiscally responsible approach to the current economic circumstances. We are now in opposition. We understand that. But the former government made it very clear the economic headwinds Australia would face in the years ahead. They are significant economic headwinds. It's important that the settings the government adopts in the upcoming budget are appropriate for the time. That includes tackling the scourge of inflation.

I am also old enough to remember the period in Australia's history when inflation was absolutely out of control. Sadly, I was a young child. I can remember the impact on my family's farming business during the 1970s when inflation did get out of control. We had a wage and inflation spiral that caused untold pain to the workers of Australia, to working families, to the businesses of Australia, and on our family farm, under former Treasurer Keating. The overdraft that our family's farming business operated on reached 22 per cent. The generation of young people in today's economy, those who have only lived under Liberal governments in their adult life, have seen extraordinarily low interest rates for a long period of time. We have now seen significant increases in a very short period of time.

The challenge for this government in the upcoming budget is to show that they understand the economy, that they haven't bought into the modern monetary theory view of the world that constant spending and constant borrowing is the way to fix this problem. We need to have a set of policies that are appropriate for the times. In doing that, I can absolutely guarantee that this opposition will be looking at that budget with an absolute magnifying glass to ensure the settings that are put in place are appropriate for the times and that we actually do tackle the serious problems that are facing the Australian economy—the cost-of-living pressures on Australian families; the impact of inflation on Australian businesses. That is the test for this government. It's a test that they will be found wanting in.