Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Clearly, to the Australian people, Labor's gig is up. We said before the last election they had no economic plan, and, sadly for our nation, every single day they have demonstrated they still have no economic plan for our nation.

Over halfway through their term, what are they doing? The only things they have implemented are policies handed to them by the trade union movement and by the left of the Labor Party—and we've seen that tragically play out in the divisive referendum this nation has just gone through and in the frightening industrial relations legislation they failed to tell the Australian people about before the last election. You have a look at any other policy, and it's not just the absence of an economic policy; they wasted nine years in opposition not developing a single policy. In defence, reviews for nearly two years and no action. In emergency management, a royal commission—an implementable thing straight away; they're still doing two reviews. There has been probably the most criminal lack of action on the NDIS in its history, and nearly two years later they will still be reviewing while the scheme is in trouble.

Most importantly for all Australians, in particular Western Australians, this government has no economic plan. It is true—and this government is, sadly, still demonstrating—that under every Labor government over the last 30 years, on average, Labor have delivered higher unemployment, higher interest rates, higher electricity prices and higher taxes—and now higher inflation and cost of living for just about everything for Australian families. And they're sitting there dealing with everything else but the actions that will drive down the cost of living for Australians. In fact, they are pump-priming the economy to make inflation even higher and the cost of living even higher for Australians.

Taming inflation should be the government's first, second and third priority, but it is not. Families right across Australia, including in Senator O'Sullivan's and my home state of Western Australia, are doing it incredibly tough. Both Senator O'Sullivan and I have visited Foodbank many times, and it is absolutely heartbreaking to see what is happening. For every single interest rate rise—10 or 11 under Labor—Foodbank sees a significant increase in access to its food supplies. Most importantly and most sadly, over 70 per cent of the people they are now assisting are people who have never had to seek support before; they are two-income families who are absolutely struggling under the cost-of-living pressures this government continues to inflict.

This year alone, over 116,000 children in Western Australia live in severely-food-insecure households. There were 208,000 households in Western Australia that went hungry—can you believe this? In Western Australia, over 200,000 households went hungry in the last 12 months due to a lack of money and having to skip meals, sometimes going for days without eating. And 23 per cent of households in Western Australia with mortgages experienced food insecurity in the last year. This is completely and utterly outrageous.

It's not only the cost of living and people finding it very difficult to feed their families. The cost of petrol under this government has skyrocketed to, somewhere in WA, over $2 a litre—an increase of over 10 per cent. Many families, and particularly the elderly, are no longer able to use their cars because they cannot afford the cost of petrol.

Housing is such an important issue, and it is such a challenging issue for far too many West Australians. Home rental prices in Perth have increased by nearly 20 per cent in the last 12 months alone. That is a complete and utter disgrace. Despite all of the rhetoric from those opposite about homelessness, the number of people sleeping rough in Western Australia has increased by over 100 per cent since Labor came to government. Perth has the tightest vacancy rate, and so it goes, on and on. Western Australians simply cannot afford this Labor government, and shame on you for doing— (Time expired)