Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

We heard from those opposite today that tonight's budget is going to do all it can to help Australians with the cost of living, but what has the government been doing for these past four years? We have inflation at a record high—4.6 per cent and accelerating. How is high inflation helping Australians with the cost of living? We have Australians now paying $2,200 a year more on average in groceries for the average Australian household because the price of groceries has gone up about 15 per cent since this government came to office. We've got Australian households paying $1,800 more a year on average in power bills since this government came to office. How is high inflation helping Australians with the cost of living? We have now had, under this government, 15 interest rate rises. That's a cumulative increase of four percentage points. If you're an average mortgage holder, you're now paying $30,000 extra a year in interest, $2,500 a month. How are high interest rates helping Australians with the cost of living?

Since this government came to office, income tax receipts have grown by $83 billion. That is about $6,000 per taxpayer. Through bracket creep, the government is taking $6,000 more from every taxpayer in growing income taxes. How are higher taxes helping Australians with the cost of living? We've had government debt grow by $140 billion under this government's watch. Government debt today is almost $1 trillion. That's costing the average Australian $1,000 a year in interest repayments. How are extra interest repayments on government debt and government borrowing helping Australians with the cost of living? In the Australian economy we have real wages lower than they were in June 2022. How are lower real wages helping Australians with the cost of living?

That is this government's record through four budgets as we approach a fifth budget tonight. That Australians' cost of living has steadily deteriorated under their watch. In fact, if you look at the OECD measure, real household disposal income is down about seven per cent in Australia since mid-2022. In the rest of the OECD and other advanced economies, it has increased. We had the Reserve Bank of Australia say just last week that they do not see inflation returning to the target band until the end of 2027, that they do not envisage real wages starting to grow again until the middle of 2027, that they envisage at least another four interest rate rises. This was in the modelling that accompanied their decision to yet again increase interest rates.

This is Labor's economic plan in action. We have had four years of deteriorating living standards. We've had four years of Australians paying higher interest rates, paying more taxes, paying more for groceries, for fuel and for electricity, and seeing their living standards steadily fall backwards, and the Reserve Bank expects that to continue until at least for another 18 months. We have heard from those opposite—and I'm sure we'll hear it a lot tonight—that the war in the Middle East is causing this problem in Australia. Well, in Australia, the Reserve Bank has increased interest rates for the past three consecutive months. Every other central bank has kept interest rates on hold for the past three consecutive months. Why is that? Why are other economies able to absorb the shock of the Middle East oil price rise but Australia is not? It's because, as the Reserve Bank Governor said just last week, inflation in Australia was already out of control. The government did not use good economic times to repair our balance sheet or to take pressure off monetary policy, and as a result Australians are once again going to pay the price.

Question agreed to.