Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

Cast your mind back to 2023. In February that year, Treasurer Jim Chalmers had his essay of more than 5,000 words published in the Monthly. The Treasurer wrote about wanting to 'build a better capitalism'. It was classic doublespeak, of course. What the Treasurer and the Prime Minister have wanted from day one is to move Australia away from a free-market economy and towards a state directed and controlled economy. Labor has embraced the same statist ideas that have devastated economies and people wherever they've been implemented.

That's why Australia is in such an economic mess today. That's why instead of cost-of-living pressures going down, Australians will likely soon be hit by yet another interest rate rise. If the RBA decides to lift interest rates, it'll be the 13th rate rise Australians have experienced under this Labor government. Consider what we've seen under Labor. We've seen record government spending. Our economy will soon be burdened with $1.2 trillion of debt for the first time. We've seen the bloating of the Public Service. Australia's public sector workforce is now one of the largest in the world on a per capita basis. We've seen an appetite for government intrusion into the lives of Australians. Labor has enacted some 5,000 new regulations. We've seen interference across the economy—interference through Labor's environment, industrial relations and industry policies. It's no wonder that the economy is shuddering to a halt. It's no wonder that under Labor Australians are paying 15 per cent more for food, 19 per cent more for housing, 15 per cent more for health and 39 per cent more for insurance.

If there's one area of Labor's policy agenda that's contributing to economic decline more than anything else, it's Labor's energy policy. We used to be a competitive economy because we believed in affordable and reliable power. But under Labor's reckless renewables-only push this government is making power unaffordable and completely unreliable. Labor has turned its back on coal and gas. It refuses to lift the ban on nuclear power because it knows nuclear power will be commercially viable, as it is in more than 30 other countries around the world. Instead Labor subsidises renewables to give renewables the appearance of being competitive. Chris Bown is engaging in one of the most scandalous cons ever attempted on the Australian people.