Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think that one of the best tests for whether or not this Labor government is handling this crisis appropriately is to look at consumer confidence, and the confidence of Australian people, the confidence of Australian consumers, is at its lowest rate in 50 years. It's at its lowest rate since 1972. The Australian people have lost confidence. As President Roosevelt said, we have nothing to fear except fear itself, and that lack of confidence is of great concern in relation to the Australian economy. It's even lower today than it was at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the coalition was in government and had the job, during a crisis, to manage the messaging to the Australian people and to instil confidence in the Australian people that the Australian government was pulling the levers it needed to pull in order to protect the national interest and the interests of all Australians. So, from my perspective, that result, of consumer confidence being at its lowest level in 50 years, is quite damning of the government's response to the crisis we're in.

The second point I want to make is in relation to the Prime Minister's national address, which is going to occur tonight. I welcome the fact that the Prime Minister is going to speak to the Australian people. I believe there should have been more of it and that it should have occurred earlier and more often. The concern I have is that this parliament has been sitting for four of the last five weeks. It appears—and my colleague Senator Kovacic raised this—that this message is prerecorded. It raises the obvious question as to why the Prime Minister isn't giving that message now—and didn't earlier today—in the Australian parliament so all of us here as Australian senators have an opportunity to raise concerns and interrogate the messaging that's contained in that address and to raise issues of concern to the people we represent? Why are we being deprived of that opportunity?

For four out of the last five weeks, this parliament's been sitting, yet the Prime Minister makes a decision to give that national address on the afternoon of the last day of those four weeks of sitting. Why? Of greater concern is that this parliament will not be sitting for five weeks, until the national budget, so the Australian people will be deprived of their representatives having the opportunity to interrogate the government and the executive with respect to its response to this crisis.

The last point I want to make is that the Australian people are being hit from all sides in terms of this cost-of-living crisis, and my attention was caught by this quote:

Westpac chief economist Luci Ellis said even factoring in the reduction of the fuel excise, she expects headline inflation to peak at 5.4 per cent in the June quarter. She also now expects the official cash rate to peak at 4.85 per cent this year. Ellis previously forecast one additional rate hike in May, but now also sees follow-up hikes in June and August …

That is devastating news for those Australians, including young Australians, who are servicing their home loans. The Australian people are copping it from all sides under this Labor government. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.