Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to all questions asked by coalition senators.

The government is presiding over a cost-of-living crisis and the largest decline in living standards across the developed world over the past three years, but you wouldn't know it from listening to those opposite. We had the Minister for Finance, Senator Gallagher, claim there has been substantial progress made in Australia's economy and the cost of living over the past three years, but the evidence indicates quite the opposite. Just this week, we had Homelessness Australia say that they have seen a 33 per cent increase in the number of Australians who have had to sleep rough over the past two years. We've had the Foodbank hunger report highlight that one-third of Australian households have experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months, with one in five households skipping meals or entire days of eating all because of the cost-of-living crisis that this government has presided over.

Unfortunately, the news is not getting any better. Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics issued the quarterly inflation figures, which show inflation surging from an annualised rate of 2.1 per cent to 3.2 per cent—outside the Reserve Bank's band. Underpinning that, we've seen electricity prices rise by almost 24 per cent over the past year. We've seen utility prices rise by 14 per cent. We've seen the price of coffee and tea and eggs rise by between 13 and 14 per cent. We've seen rates go up by six per cent. The cost of everything is getting higher.

The consequence of this inflation that is out of control under this government is what we saw from the Reserve Bank just yesterday: the Reserve Bank's decision to hold rates as they are, noting that inflation is 'materially higher than expected' and outside the Reserve Bank's band.

Remember that, just a few months ago, analysts, commentators and forecasters were all expecting there would be further cuts in the cash rate in Australia. The Reserve Bank has now indicated that further interest rate cuts are off the cards. Indeed, many commentators now expect the next move in interest rates to be up. If you're an average mortgage holder in Australia, you are already paying $1,800 more per month, on average, then you did before the Albanese Labor government came to office, and there is no relief in sight.

Before becoming elected, Anthony Albanese promised, 'Life would be cheaper under me.' But the lived experience, the evidence and all the figures since show the exact opposite. We have seen, in Australia, the largest decline in living standards across the developed world. Look at the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is the club of advanced, developed economies like Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Italy, France, Germany and Spain; these are all members of the OECD. Over the past three years, since 2022, their economies have not been great, but their living standards have improved by somewhere in the order of five to seven per cent. Over the past three years in Australia they have gone backwards, the largest decline in the developed world. Why is that? It's because people are paying more taxes under this government because they are being pushed into higher income tax brackets, they are paying more for life essentials because inflation is running so high and they are being hit by higher interest payments. Other central banks around the world have been able to cut interest rates in response to an easing of inflationary pressures, but inflationary pressures here in Australia have not eased, and the Reserve Bank is trying to counteract expansionary government fiscal policy.

I wanted to touch on that because, ultimately, what is causing all this is the government's own prolific spending. In the government's own budget papers, we see that government spending is increasing at a rate four times that of the economy. That is an unsustainable rate of growth. We have government spending at the highest level, as a share of the economy, in 40 years—outside the emergency conditions of the pandemic. Last week we saw gross government reach $970 billion; it is forecast to hit $1 trillion this financial year, a record for Australia. Interest repayments on that debt are running at $50,000 per minute and are now one of the most rapidly growing items in the budget.

What we have got here is government spending fuelling inflationary pressures and starving the private sector of resources, meaning that people are paying more for life's essentials and that interest rates are being held higher than they need to be by the Reserve Bank. Australia's living standards are going backwards, and everyone is feeling it.