Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

This week's budget from Treasurer Chalmers, on behalf of the Labor-Greens government, could not be further from the Labor Party's original support base of working Australians. A simple question: what in this budget will ease the challenges everyday Australians are facing, challenges the Labor government have created themselves? Under Prime Minister Albanese, inflation is 4.6 per cent and 13 per cent across his government's four years. Don't blame Iran or Ukraine! It's the government itself which is the leading cause of inflation.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics tracks increases in government services on a like-for-like basis. In the 12 months to March this year, government property rates and charges went up six per cent, water and sewerage went up seven per cent, postal services went up eight per cent, secondary education went up seven per cent, preschool and primary education went up five per cent. All of these government charges have increased faster than the overall inflation rate. Wages have gone backwards. Average wage increases in the last 12 months were only 3.7 per cent in the private sector and 3.9 per cent in the government sector—less than inflation.

Under the Albanese Labor government, if it feels like you're going backwards while working harder, it's because you are. That's why 56 per cent of the public in a recent Freshwater poll think the country is going in the wrong direction. It's no wonder the ANZ-Roy Morgan index of consumer confidence fell 4.3 points last week to 58.8 against the long-term average of 110. This is the lowest consumer confidence reading since records began in 1973.

The tax cuts in the budget are an insult and will be wiped out from inflation before they start next July. We need infrastructure spending, smaller government, an end to net zero madness and waste, and balanced budgets. And stop flooding this country with more people than we can build homes for. It's driving the prices of houses beyond affordability. These are all One Nation policies which will help. One Nation is now the party for workers.