Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a matter of public importance because the cost-of-living crisis that began under Labor continues on today. In 2022, Anthony Albanese made a promise to the Australian people. He said that they would be better off under Labor. More than three years on, Australians are worse off. Living standards have declined by more than six per cent under the Albanese Labor government, and that is the biggest decline in living standards in the developed world. Australians were told that their power bills would go down by $275, but, instead, families are paying thousands of dollars more, and there are 330,000 Australians who are drowning in $300 million of energy debt. Labor's solution to this is, 'Oh, you should shop around.' That's not a solution; that's an excuse.

Australians were told that mortgages would be cheaper under Labor. Instead, interest rates went up 12 times, and mortgage repayments are up on average around $1,800 a month. That's not the sort of money that you find down the back of the couch. We were told by Labor that they had a plan for inflation. But, instead, Labor added fuel to the fire by increasing government spending, and that kept inflation higher for longer. Then they told us that inflation was a global problem and it wasn't their fault. But, while other countries' inflation fell and their interest rates came down, ours continued to climb. Australian families and businesses have paid an extraordinarily high price for this. The cost of everything is up. Electricity is up by 39 per cent under Labor. Rent is up by 20 per cent. Insurance is up by 35 per cent. Food is up by 14 per cent. Health is up by 15 per cent. Education is up by 17 per cent.

Labor's had three years and four budgets to get this right, but every single one of them has failed. They also have seen a fall in our standard of living that we now expect will not be recovered until 2030. So, if you are feeling poorer, there is a good reason: you are poorer. You are poorer under Labor.

The coalition set up the cost-of-living committee in September 2022 because we could see at that stage that Labor had no plan to address the cost-of-living crisis. We travelled around the country and received thousands of submissions from ordinary Australians and heard firsthand the pressure that Australian families and businesses are under. After a two-year inquiry, the evidence was overwhelming. It found that Australia's standard of living had collapsed due to Labor's high inflation and low productivity. To address this, two of the many recommendations that committee made included for the Albanese government to convene a National Cabinet to address this issue of excessive government spending that's driving inflation across all levels of government and for a National Cabinet to develop a productivity-enhancing reform to the economy, including establishing a national deregulation agenda.

While Labor didn't act on these recommendations at the time, it does seem that the Treasurer has finally realised that productivity is a problem in Australia. He got halfway there with his productivity roundtable, but, as we know, the outcomes to that were a little lacklustre. Just a few weeks ago the RBA that warned our living standards would continue to fall over the next few years unless something is done to address our sluggish productivity. Because we've gone backwards under Labor and will continue to go backwards, we are concerned that Labor is not taking the cost-of-living crisis that continues in Australia seriously. They're out of their depth. They've blamed everybody else, while Australians know the truth: the cost of living was fuelled by inflation and is homegrown. Inflation is higher than it should be because of decisions that were made here in Canberra.

The government's spending has blown out to more than 27 per cent of GDP. That's the highest level of government spending outside of a recession in nearly 40 years. That's extraordinary! Debt is heading to $1.2 trillion, and that's $32,700 per household and $2,080 a year in extra interest that we're all paying since Labor came to office. Higher spending, higher debt, higher inflation—that's the reality of life under Labor. No Australian household or business would run their budget the way that Jim Chalmers is running his.

Australians were promised relief. They were promised their grocery bills, mortgages and electricity bills would go down, and none of that has happened. The Reserve Bank has been clear. Unless the government reins in its spending, inflation will continue to be too high for too long and standards of living will not improve. Australians deserve better. They deserve a government that keeps its promises, lives within its means and delivers the relief for families that they so desperately need and have been crying out for now for more than three years.