Leah Blyth (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this matter of public importance from my fellow senator, Senator Sharma. It is extraordinary to sit here and listen to the contributions from those opposite. I think it's fair to say that they are gaslighting the Australian people. After four years under this Albanese government, Australians are going backwards. You only have to go out there and speak to someone at the grocery store or at the school gate and they will tell you that their life is much worse now than it was four years ago. Around the kitchen table, they will tell you that they are struggling to pay their electricity bills and they are struggling with the cost of insurance. We've just heard Senator Brown prattle off all the urgent care clinics and what they're doing with Medicare. Today people have had to put up with increases in their private health insurance premiums, on top of what is happening with the cost of fuel. To sit here and listen to those opposite tell us that everything is absolutely fine and Australians have never had it so good absolutely makes me feel sick.

Australians are going backwards. Material income is down by seven per cent. Those opposite say we've had record wage growth in Australia, but how is that keeping pace with inflation? Inflation means families have less money in their pockets to spend on the things that they want to do. Instead of sitting around thinking, 'What are we going to do with the kids this Easter? Are we going to catch up with family?' families are asking themselves, 'What can we cut this Easter?' They cannot afford to take the family road trip or buy Easter eggs for the kids, because of the rising cost of groceries and the rising power prices. This is a result of very poor policy choices by this government.

We have had 14 interest rate rises under the Albanese Labor government, and I think it's fair to say there is more to come. And this was all before the conflict in the Middle East began. Things were already challenging for the Australian people. We already had a cost-of-living crisis, and now, on top of that, Australian families are having to put up with a fuel crisis in our country. We will probably see more interest rate rises in Australia this year. We have sticky inflation. Senator Scarr mentioned that this government is spending like a drunken sailor, and it is. We are headed towards $1 trillion in debt. That is about $50,000 per minute in interest payments that the Australian taxpayer is picking up the bill for, and there is no stopping this government's spending. Inflation will stay higher for longer, we will have significant issues in our economy and we will see our living standards go backwards. The only reasons we aren't in recession are that they not only are spending like drunken sailors but have opened the floodgates to migration here in Australia. The only reason we are not in a recession is the number of people they are bringing into the country to prop up those numbers. That is having an impact then on housing for Australians. That is having an impact on accessing hospitals and medical services. It's having an impact on everyone's back pocket.

I think it's fair to say that the policy choices that this government is making are driving Australia into the ground. It is breaking the back, quite frankly, of hardworking Australians. That's what it's doing. When Labor spends, it is the Australian people who pay the price. That's the bottom line here: Labor will keep spending. They will keep gaslighting the Australian people and telling them that everything is fine, but, when Australians go to get their groceries and pay that grocery bill, when Australians have to pay their rent and when their mortgages keep going up and have gone up for the 14th time, I think it's fair to say that the Australian people have had enough. It's time for this government to, as it's asking the Australian people to do, balance the books and live within its means.