Senate debates

Wednesday, 26 October 2022

Matters of Public Importance

Budget

4:29 pm

Photo of Sue LinesSue Lines (President) Share this | | Hansard source

PRESIDENT (): The following proposal from Senator David Pocock has been received under standing order 75:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

The rate of JobSeeker needs to be raised in order to lift more than 3 million Australians out of poverty and stop 1 in 6 Australian children growing up in poverty, given the current cost of living crisis that last night's budget forecast will worsen with huge increases to energy costs, food and rent among other essentials.

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's discussions. With the concurrence of the Senate, I ask the clerks to set the clocks accordingly.

4:30 pm

Photo of David PocockDavid Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | | Hansard source

Behind some of the welcome and big-ticket items in last night's budget, like the new housing accord that aspires to deliver a million homes over the next five years, expanded childcare subsidies, more paid parental leave and cheaper medicine, there lies a bigger, much more worrying story. It's a story of rising inflation, rising interest rates, slowing GDP growth, rising unemployment and rising costs of living across the country. The last one is a real killer—a 56 per cent forecast rise in electricity prices, a 44 per cent forecast rise in gas prices and a jump in both groceries and rent.

The Treasurer is saying we're unlikely to see a rise in real wages for at least another couple of years. Despite this acknowledgement, the government hasn't done anything in terms of raising the rate for JobSeeker, Austudy or Commonwealth rent assistance. I absolutely understand and commend the need for 'responsible economic management', the need to 'live within our means' and the many other phrases bandied around this place when it comes to the budget. But, equally, I simply don't accept that we can let this crisis continue. The budget is about priorities, and what we've heard from the new Labor government in their first budget is that the three million Australians living in poverty are not a priority. The one in six children across Australia who are growing up in poverty are not a priority to the new government.

We have to think about this in terms of the things that we are happy to spend money on. At a time when fossil fuel companies are pulling in record profits, we're still happy to subsidise them. We're still happy to pour money into things like the Middle Arm project. That's $1.9 billion here and a few billion dollars there for the gas industry. But, when it comes to Australians in our communities who desperately need the support, we're silent. The government had an opportunity to increase JobSeeker. Forty-eight dollars a day is not enough to live on. We heard the government pat themselves on the back when the rate was indexed and went from $46 to $48. But $48 is still nowhere near enough.

Let's be clear: the choices that we make in this place and in the other place are keeping one in six children across Australia—one of the most wealthy countries in the world—living in poverty. It has huge implications, not just for those kids' futures but for all of our futures, to have one in six children growing up in poverty and three million Australians living below the poverty line.

We know times are tough. Here in the ACT, our front-line services are stretched to breaking point. Food pantries have massive lines and are battling to get enough staff. People with jobs are struggling. How do we not support to get back into the labour market people who are in between jobs, looking for jobs and trying to get their lives back on track?

I really implore the government to think more about this. You're governing for the Australian people. You're answerable to those three million Australians who, through your decisions, are being left to live on $48 a day. For those one in six children who are growing up in poverty, the rest of their lives will be shaped by their experience of growing up in poverty, of growing up not being able to afford things, of looking at their friends at school and asking, 'Why can't I have that? Why do I have to live like that?' These are the choices that we are privileged to make in this place, and I implore the government to raise the rate before or at the next budget in May.

4:35 pm

Photo of Louise PrattLouise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank Senator Pocock for this motion, but I have to say that there is not a day that goes by when I do not take this issue extremely seriously. We recognise that living on income support payments is extremely challenging. As a government, however, we face competing calls on the budget which, sadly, we have to make very difficult choices on. In the budget that we have just done, we have sought to put some money back into people's pockets, including through cheaper child care, expanded paid parental leave, cheaper medicine, more affordable housing and support for low-income households that are earning wages.

To demonstrate how complicated this issue is—and I don't mean to overstate it in terms of complexity, but this is the way the issue has to be managed—4.7 million Australians received a boost to their government payments just through the indexation adjustments made in September this year. Now, I'm not saying that that fixes the problem, but what I am saying to you is that that increase, in and of itself, adds about $10 billion worth of costs to the bottom line of the budget over the forward estimates. So, when we look to support families and we look to support households, particularly the most vulnerable ones in our society, we need to make sure that the changes that we make are sustainable.

The rate will be considered again in the next budget, but there is little point in having a one-off supplement boost here or there, as we've had a history of doing, if we are simply setting up a system that is unsustainable. I also think we need to look at the whole package of needs of a family, and it's important to recognise that it's not $48 a day when we're dealing with families, that we need to include family tax benefit A and B and that these, along with rent assistance, are targeted payments for low-income households. When it comes to looking at government policies in the future in this regard, we need to be looking at the holistic system of support that people get.

I note in this regard that the House of Representatives currently has an inquiry into Workforce Australia and is also doing an inquiry into ParentsNext. ParentsNext has purportedly been a program to support parents with young children to get ready for re-entering the workforce. Historically, it has had a whole bunch of obligations attached to it, which I note have been suspended in recent times. Programs like that, that have been driven by the last government, haven't really known whether they are a parenting support program or whether they are an employment pathway program. I note, in that regard, that the resources that we put into parts of the community for programs like that, and the resources that we put into places like Medicare, are only good if people can use them. And so we need to continue to deliberate about where our funding is best spent, in a social welfare and community sense. That is why we are looking very actively at these issues, for example, through the inquiry on Workforce Australia in the lower house.

We acknowledge that the release of the Poverty in Australia report 2022: a snapshot, for example—

Photo of James McGrathJames McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

Senator Pratt, your time has expired. Senator Brockman.

4:41 pm

Photo of Slade BrockmanSlade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I, too, rise to speak on this matter of public importance. Through you, Mr Acting Deputy President, to the mover of this MPI, Senator Pocock: I will start by noting the change of tone from those opposite on this topic since we were in government. When they were sitting on this side, it was all very easy—to throw around promises, to make claims and to push barrows, none of which could ever be fulfilled if they'd had to take a responsible economic approach to the budget. The sad reality of what we've seen over the last 24 hours in terms of cost-of-living pressures impacting all Australians, including those on social welfare, is that there's very little in this budget for them.

In fact, we've seen an abject failure on one of the key promises—on energy costs. And we've seen an abject failure by the Treasurer, just today, to explain the promise to deliver a $275 reduction in electricity costs, which would make a real difference, particularly to low-income Australians. But the Treasurer today, in his mishearing of a question in the Press Club, and in his subsequent response in question time in the House, has shown that he's not even sure if the $275 was in the budget or wasn't in the budget. If it was in the budget, then it is clearly a broken promise, because the budget shows that electricity prices are going to rise—and not just by a small amount, but by something like 50 per cent.

In a situation where Australians, particularly low-income Australians, rely on a budget taking these kinds of issues seriously, this government has failed the first test. It has failed the first test—of achieving what it said it was going to achieve—and it has failed the test of competence—of answering questions on what are very straightforward issues. Are they going to deliver on the $275? Is it in the budget or not? These aren't complex questions, these are easy questions. A lot of Australians, including Australians on income support, would like the answer to them and, unfortunately, we just get confusion from the Treasurer.

In the few minutes remaining to me, I want to set the record straight on the issue, because sometimes there's a lot of misinformation distributed about the coalition government's record in this area. In particular, in the last couple of years of the coalition government, it provided unprecedented payments right across the economy to assist those on low incomes and to assist those on welfare—to assist those who were doing it very, very tough in an unprecedented time—in fact, $32 billion in emergency support payments, which the current government now often labels as wasted spending or, somehow, a poor expenditure of money. At the time, of course, they supported it, and it kept the economy strong. In fact, we delivered an economy that was in very good shape, that was growing and had delivered record low unemployment, with a growing number of people in jobs and extraordinary opportunities in the economy for people who were looking for a job. The coalition government also delivered the first increase in support payments—don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure I'm right—since 1986. So the coalition government actually had a very proud record in this area.

We also made it clear to the Australian people that there were economic headwinds including inflation and that a sensible response by the Commonwealth government was required as we shepherded the economy forward. That is the challenge for the Labor government, and they failed the first test.

4:46 pm

Photo of Janet RiceJanet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | | Hansard source

Last night, we watched the Treasurer, Dr Chalmers, and the Labor government deliver a budget that is going to give tax cuts of $9,000 a year to the wealthy—to billionaires, to everyone in this place—while there was absolutely zero in the budget last night for the millions of Australians who are struggling to survive on income support. This was a Labor government budget. What is the point of Labor? Poverty is a political choice, and last night, Labor showed they had made their choice. In this budget, they have chosen to give tax cuts to the wealthy at the cost of $254 billion over the next 10 years, rather than doing anything for the millions of Australians, including the one in six children in Australia, who are living in poverty. This is not complex. These are people who are absolutely struggling. Every day, millions of Australians are having to make decisions about whether they eat, whether they pay for their medicines or whether they pay their rent.

I recently spoke to one person struggling to survive on the JobSeeker payment who told me:

I'll be 63 in a couple of weeks. No one will employ me at my age I went food shopping the other day. For the first time in my life I contemplated shop lifting because I could not afford the food I wanted to buy.

My next door neighbour is older, an ex tradie, his knees and back are gone due to hard work, he is a year away from the pension, he is shoplifting food to survive, he is giving me some of it.

I have volunteered all my life but due to a bad motorbike accident that almost severed my right hand 10 years ago I have had to stop doing that.

I was a volunteer Wildlife rescuer

I have volunteered for

The Womens Hospital

The Childrens Hospital

Op shops

When I lived in a regional town I volunteered with

The CWA

The CFA

The SES

I have consistently put back into society and now I and many like me have been left behind on the scrap heap, forced to contemplate breaking the law to eat.

I would prefer my name remain anonymous as I don't want people to know that I'm considering stealing food, I don't want that "stigma" attached to me even though I'm living a stigmatised life while on Job Seeker.

Raise the rate and lower the retirement age. I'm tired

We are living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet people are forced to shoplift to eat and there are tax cuts that are going to give the wealthy $9,000 a year extra in their pocket. It was delivered last night in a Labor budget. The budget also told us that rents are increasing sharply and that electricity is going to go up 56 per cent. This budget does not cater for people who are just barely scraping by. It punishes people living in poverty. If this had been a Greens budget, there would have been different choices being made. It would have included a livable income guarantee, ensuring support was there for everyone who needed it because poverty is a political choice. We would have raised the rate of JobSeeker above the poverty line, to above $88 a day, abolished all punitive parts of our income support system and returned the provision of employment services to the Commonwealth. Our livable income guarantee would have sat side by side with the Greens' plans to build a million affordable homes, to increase wages and to reduce the costs of essential services like dental care and child care by making them free. We know this is possible if we're willing to make the billionaires and the big corporations and the very wealthy pay their fair share rather than giving them tax cuts. Instead we are going to be paying out hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts.

Lifting people out of poverty can be done. We saw, during the height of the pandemic, the government double JobSeeker, raising it above the poverty line, and abolish all mutual obligations. During this time people were able to improve their lives and meet their basic needs, and their mental and physical health improved. Advocacy groups and people living in poverty have repeatedly called on Labor to raise the rate of income support, yet Labor has failed to listen. This budget has done nothing to improve the lives of the 5.1 million Australians struggling to survive on meagre income support payments.

4:51 pm

Photo of Ralph BabetRalph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Labor's budget is a disaster. The cost of living is going up, power prices are going up, taxes are going up and unemployment is going up. The only thing that isn't going up is your wages.

This Labor government continually promises to reduce the cost of living, while simultaneously increasing the cost of living. Their strategy to lower prices is to increase prices. I can't, for the life of me, work out which is more incredible: the claims that this Labor government makes or the fact that this government expects Australians to believe their claims.

During the election campaign, Labor promised many times that they would reduce power prices by approximately $275. Instead, power prices are set to go up by more than 50 per cent. This Labor government insists that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy, or at least it will be just as soon as they spend $10 billion here and another $10 billion there. There seems to be a direct relationship between how much of our money Labor spend on their renewable energy fantasy and how many times they assure us that it will result in cheaper power. It'll just take a few more billion dollars, as always. If you believe that, you have the one prerequisite necessary to do the energy minister's job. And what is that prerequisite? It is wishful thinking, that's what it is.

The energy crisis—which, in turn, is increasing the cost of everything else—has nothing to do with Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, as some would have you believe. Labor made its promise to reduce power prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. It has everything to do with Labor, the Greens and the closet Greens on all sides of this chamber who are sabotaging cheap energy in this country. While Australia is pursuing frankly crazy climate policies, China is building more than half the world's coal-fired power plants, strengthening their economy and increasing their standard of living. At the same time, the price of food in Australia is going up, partly because of floods but mostly because of the skyrocketing costs of energy, making it more and more expensive to get Aussie food onto supermarket shelves. And now, for good measure, the Labor government also wants to lower methane, which will almost certainly become a tax on cows farting. That's what's going to happen: a tax on cows farting. It's going to drive up the cost of your average Aussie barbecue at the same time.

The soaring cost of living is not just a problem for the unemployed. It is a problem for everyone: families paying off a mortgage, pensioners, retirees trying to keep cool in summer and warm in winter and businesses trying to employ people—everyone. In fact, as energy prices go through the roof, manufacturers are going to be forced to go offshore—probably to China, because China isn't crippled by crazy climate policies which obviously result in unaffordable energy—as it becomes harder for businesses to keep the doors open and the lights on.

The real solution to the cost-of-living crisis is not a handout; it is affordable energy, getting rid of red and green tape and keeping government spending and taxes low so that Australia can be a land of opportunity. Raising the rate of JobSeeker is not a viable long-term solution. We absolutely have a responsibility to keep disadvantaged Australians well looked after, but the best way to do that is by creating conditions in which industry can thrive so that they can be gainfully employed. It is industry that creates jobs, not government.

Increasing the size of our welfare programs will raise our already unsustainable debt level further. This will inevitably lead to higher taxes and make it harder for families and pensioners to look after themselves and harder for businesses to employ people. The government can't have skyrocketing power prices and a generous welfare system. The government can't trash our competitive advantage, which is cheap, reliable, abundant energy in the form of coal and gas, and then expect people to prosper. (Time expired)

4:56 pm

Photo of James McGrathJames McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

ENT ( Senator McGrath ) (): The President has also received the following letter from Senator Dean Smith:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

The Albanese Labor Government has delivered a high taxing, high spending Budget that has no plan to address the cost of living crisis; predicts 140,000 Australians losing their jobs; slashes funding to regional and rural Australia; breaks Labor’s promise to the Australian people to reduce power prices by $275 annually, instead hiking power prices by 50 per cent; and that has left Australians poorer, with the average family being at least $2000 worse off by Christmas.

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.

4:57 pm

Photo of Dean SmithDean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | | Hansard source

I hope Australian families know how to swim, because the Labor Treasurer of just six months standing, Dr Jim Chalmers, has thrown them in the deep end and is not offering them a lifeline. This afternoon you'll hear coalition senators and Labor senators make their contributions and their observations about last night's budget, but let me share with the chamber what the Daily Telegraph had to say today:

Bugger all—that's what the budget does to combat intense cost of living pressures being felt right now, but Jim Chalmers argues new immediate help would do more harm than good by adding to inflation.

No lifeline for Australian families. The Financial Review this morning said:

The Albanese government has warned of 'hard days to come' as it laid the groundwork for an agenda of tax increases and spending cuts with a federal budget that forecast debt and deficit over the next decade to be worse than just six months ago.

And no lifeline for Australian families. The Australian said today:

Jim Chalmers puts hard calls on hold in a forgettable economic statement. I think Labor took a huge liberty over the last six months by preparing the country for a budget which, at best, was an economic statement and, at worst, provides no confidence to Australian families as they face the very real and immediate impacts of the rising cost of living.

Finally, Sky News said:

This budget is about giving with one hand to families and telling them on the other hand, power prices are going to take it away again, if not more.

Six months ago, Australian families put their faith in Labor. Labor's narrow election victory carried the hopes of many ordinary Australian families. And the news they woke up to this morning was that the priorities and needs of Australian families are of no interest to Labor, are of no interest to Anthony Albanese, are of no interest to Jim Chalmers.

What did the budget say last night? The budget added to those 97 occasions already where Labor had promised a $275 cut in power prices. This budget confirms a more than 50 per cent increase in energy prices. Labor had promised to the Australian people in the lead-up to the election campaign there would be an improvement in real wages. The budget showed that real wages are going backwards. The budget also showed that Labor has dumped the tax cap, and Labor's plans are to deliver a sneaky new tax on investors and retirees. Let's see how far that goes when that particular Treasury bill comes to the Senate.

The situation facing Australian families is stark. Petrol prices are on the rise. Mortgage costs are on the rise. Food prices are on the rise. And Mr Chalmers and the Prime Minister have decided that Australian families should suffer, that Australian families should be the front line of this country's defence in these challenging economic times.

In his first speech as Prime Minister-elect on election night, Mr Albanese, the Prime Minister, made his core promise very clear to Australians who did vote for him but also to Australians who didn't vote him:

No one left behind because we should always look after the disadvantaged and the vulnerable—

He went on to promise—

But also no one held back, because we should always support aspiration and opportunity.

At the first opportunity Labor had to put its values on display to our country, it decided it would not provide much-needed support and would not provide a lifeline to Australian families. It is a shocking, rude, sad revelation. Australian families would've gone to bed last night and woken up this morning realising the future ahead of them is bleak.

5:02 pm

Photo of Tony SheldonTony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

We've been here before, hearing these cost-of-living arguments from the opposition. I've said they lean in with their chin. Last time they leaned in with their entire body. Now the whole team are throwing themselves over the cliff. These people have no shame. They come here and lecture the Australian people that what they demanded at the last election, which we delivered last night, was a mistake. These are the people that brought down a trillion dollars of debt and showed nothing for it; they showed absolutely nothing for it. These are the people that had a design feature for low wages. They said low wages were a design feature of how they were going to run the economy—and guess what? That's what we got from them. That's what the consequences were. These are the same people that saw, for the first time in the history of this country, the middle class shrink under their watch. And they're coming in here and lecturing us about what should and shouldn't be done? Sorry, I keep forgetting—they have no policies, remember? That was official. They've got no plan, they've got no thought, they've got no strategy. We know the strategy they've adopted has done over people in this country for nine years now.

Then you look at some of the areas where change has taken place. But think about what they've done in the aged-care sector. Think about what their position was on the aged-care sector—no support for aged-care workers or for feminised industries. Think about all the low-paid workers, the men and women of this country. Where were those opposite on the proposition for a dollar-an-hour wage increase?

They opposed it. They come in here with no shame, every one of them, and say that they have a position that's right.

Quite clearly, in the budget last night there were a whole series of critically important pieces that will make a change and a difference for thousands—and millions—of working Australians and people in our community. The cheaper childcare strategy: quite clearly, there are going to be millions of people better off as a result of the early education program. That is an investment in the future, not money given off to Alan Joyce with no accountability, $2 billion; not watching some of the biggest names in companies around this country that were given billions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars or tens of millions of dollars turn around and spend it on bogus training packages. I mean no offence to Grill'd—I occasionally eat their burgers myself—but, I'll tell you what, giving them millions of dollars to set up a burger university, to train people for cheap labour, is the strategy they have.

The difference for us is that we have a clear strategy: 180,000 places, fee-free, for TAFE and vocational education places. That will give capacity for our economy. It will give the ability for people to learn more. It will give an opportunity for our economy to be turned around, to have the skilled labour that we need from Australians. And there are those 20,000 new university places over the next two years—again, an investment in our future. It's an investment right now. It means that money that would be coming out of people's pockets to do those things isn't happening, but it's value-adding to the economy. It's value-adding to households.

Expanding paid parental leave to six months—where are they about that? You don't think that's a cost-of-living saving? You don't think that's an advantage for men and women—women, in particular—in our community? You don't think that's an important gender-equity question that has value right across the economy? And there's more affordable housing.

Seriously, you're going to sit here and say to the government, as the ex-government—the ones that shrank the middle class, that set low wages as a strategy, that turned around and gave us this housing crisis—while we're coming up with solutions on our side, that this is not a solution affecting the cost of living? Of course it is. It logically is. It has the capacity to. It has the obvious support for that outcome.

Getting wages moving will be the great example. That will be the real test for these people with no shame. That will be the real test, to see whether they support improvements in employment relations arrangements in this country that will finally get wages moving and not put it off to the never-never—to do it as quickly, smartly and effectively as we possibly can, to make sure Australians get a better and fairer ago.

5:07 pm

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

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia I speak in favour of the Matter of Public Importance moved by Senator Dean Smith. This budget contains page after page of regulations and schemes designed to centrally manage the economy, and extra bureaucrats to make sure that happens. Missing from this budget is real infrastructure.

Queensland has lost Hells Gates Dam, despite a business case that clearly showed the dam would provide a return on investment. I thank the Senate for agreeing this afternoon to my document discovery, to bring that report to the public. Urannah Dam funding has been cancelled, a dam that would have grown Australia's high-value agriculture industry and made a substantial contribution to the government's own target of $100 billion of agricultural output at farm gate. The Hughenden Irrigation Project, a wonderful project in North Queensland, has been deferred despite the agricultural potential of the Flinders River black soil plains to bring prosperity to our north. Queensland deserves better than a Labor government that hates agriculture.

Energy is missing from this budget. Nature-dependent power currently receives $13 billion a year in renewable energy subsidies. If the number of nature-dependent power plants is to increase, to meet the 2030 target, then the allowance for the increase in subsidies should be shown in this budget. Yet it's not. Where is the base-load power generation? Nowhere. Blackouts, here we come.

In Wednesday's Financial Review the ABS announced that power prices in the September quarter rose 15.6 per cent or 60 per cent annualised. This is a catastrophe for struggling families and small businesses. How can any business have the confidence to invest when they see a basic business input blowing out, with no end in sight? This budget is an economic suicide note.

One Nation supports productive capacity, less red tape, creating wealth and a future for everyday Australians, who are the core of our nation.

5:10 pm

Photo of Susan McDonaldSusan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise with great pleasure to speak on the MPI as proposed by Senator Smith, because this budget is truly a fabrication—a papier-mache collection of lies and mistruths. The Labor Party, the now government, went to the last election with a whole series of commitments and promises which they have, one by one, broken, whether it be the Rockhampton ring road funding, the capital of Israel or the funding for various projects where they led Australians on and made the commitment that they would particularly support regional Australia.

This budget actually has more income than the last budget. It's up by $50 billion, thanks to commodity prices. But what has the government done with that increased income? Well, they've spent it. They've spent it. So spending is up from $628 billion to $651 billion. And that's not talking about the balance sheet items: the $20 billion for the power grid expenditure, $15 billion for reconstruction funding and another $10 billion. This budget is based on inflation increasing, effectively, to 7.75 per cent by the end of this year, but the government projects that by next year it will have fallen to 3.5 per cent. This seems to be a very bold statement to make. Real wages will continue going backwards. Wages will increase by 3.75 per cent, but that is not going to meet the inflation figures. People will lose jobs in 2023 according to Labor, based on the predicted unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent. That's 140,000 people out of work.

I think this is a budget that is misleading in the extreme. What has happened is that money has been ripped out of productive projects—projects that you would invest in if you were building a nation and if you were looking to the future. What this is is a Robin Hood budget that steals jobs from the future, but I just don't know who they're giving them to. Families will be $2,000 worse off under Labor by Christmas. We already pay more in the regions, but this is going to increase. We pay more for fuel, for groceries, for insurance, for electricity and for airfares. To Labor's eternal shame, they looked Australians in the eye, they begged for their votes and promised, in exchange for them, a reduction of electricity prices by $275 per year.

Now, Minister Gallagher has told us that that $275 reduction is in the budget. She said that today in question time, that it's in the budget.

Photo of Katy GallagherKaty Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | | Hansard source

Don't verbal me; read the Hansard!

Photo of Susan McDonaldSusan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | | Hansard source

I look forward to having that explained further to me. Labor is telling regional people and businesses here that a war 12,000 kilometres away is why they have to break a key election promise made 97 times. Regional people have a nose for political spin, and these excuses stink. Power prices are going up by more than 50 per cent, gas prices are going up by more than 40 per cent, taxes up, employment up, interest rates up and inflation up. But there's one thing that's not going up: under Labor, real wages are not going up.

Labor wants to cut Australia's methane emissions, but this will be impossible if they continue with these excuses and lies. On the upside, at least our meat herds won't need culling; we'll just need Labor to stop talking! The regions have smaller populations—

Photo of Katy GallagherKaty Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | | Hansard source

A decade of insecure wages!

Photo of Susan McDonaldSusan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | | Hansard source

I'm wondering if those opposite would like the opportunity to speak, because they're certainly speaking a lot now. No? Thank you. The regions have smaller populations; businesses have static customer numbers, and an increase in costs will push them to the wall. A 50 per cent increase on power prices will result in business closures, jobs losses and increasingly difficult circumstances, thanks to the headlong rush to emissions reductions without a plan to genuinely transition the economy. Local butchers and pubs will have to charge people more and put off staff.

Why do regions matter? Well, for Labor, a small town is just a photo opportunity. But it is so much more for the people, businesses and councils that live and operate there.

5:15 pm

Photo of Carol BrownCarol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | | Hansard source

That contribution from Senator McDonald felt like we were in some sort of twilight zone. She talked about interest rate rises, cost-of-living rises and real wage increases, when, after 10 years of coalition government, the whole deliberate design feature of their budget was to keep wages low. That contribution was extraordinary. It completely ignored the actual facts of a decade of wasted opportunities and wrong priorities that the coalition government left us. And let's not forget: they did leave us with a trillion dollars' worth of debt without much to show for it.

I have to say that I was so proud to be in the other place last night to hear our Treasurer deliver the 2022-23 budget speech. For the first time in 10 years a Labor budget was presented to the people of this country—a budget which is responsible, right for the times and ready for the future. Making good decisions now is critical to making sure no-one is held back and no-one is left behind. Much of what we presented last night was motivated by the cost-of-living pressures faced by Australians around the country that were brought about by the lingering impacts of the pandemic, by the war in Ukraine and by natural disasters at home that have led to pressures on supply chains and prices.

Budgets, at their best, bring together the global and the local. This budget delivers for all Australians, helping them manage the cost-of-living pressures and plans for the future with our five-point cost-of-living plan: cheaper child care, cheaper medicines, expanding paid parental leave to six months, more affordable housing and getting wages moving again. Our plan for cheaper child care will support families and deliver an economic dividend. The $4.5 billion plan will cut the cost of early education and care for around 1.26 million Australian families, easing the cost-of-living pressures, giving children access to critical early education and giving parents the opportunity to work and earn more if they want to. And we're making medicines cheaper for Australian households. For the first time in the PBS's 75-year history, the maximum cost of general scripts under the PBS will fall.

We are delivering a $531 million investment to expand the paid parental leave system up to 26 weeks by July 2026. This is the biggest boost to Australia's paid parental leave scheme since it was created by whom? It was the former Labor government in 2011, because the other side—the coalition government—don't create those programs that make significant, real change in people's lives. The extension will support parents to spend more time with their children and share caring responsibilities more equally. We will also deliver 40,000 new social and affordable houses, including 30,000 from the Housing Australia Future Fund and an additional 10,000 dwellings under the new National Housing Accord. And we will introduce measures to get wages moving again by ensuring a safer, fairer and more secure workplace.

On top of the five-point plan for the cost of living, this Labor budget builds a stronger, more resilient and more modern economy with investment in so many vital areas. Infrastructure is critical to building the nation, which we all want, and the Albanese government's investment in infrastructure will deliver the best outcome for the Australian people now and into the future. The budget takes an important first step in ensuring that the Commonwealth's infrastructure spending is responsible, affordable and sustainable. We are delivering on our election promises, which take the total investment in transport infrastructure in every state and territory in this budget to $55 billion over the forward estimates for new and existing projects.

5:20 pm

Photo of Peter Whish-WilsonPeter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | | Hansard source

In the words of the Treasurer from last night, this budget is 'solid, steady and sensible'. I think it's probably a fair yarn to say it's in that 'solid and steady' territory. There's not a lot that's new here—it's not particularly bold or visionary—but I do take umbrage with the word 'sensible'. I don't think it's sensible to be spending $240 billion on tax cuts that are mostly going to benefit the wealthy in this country. Nor do I think it's sensible in a time of climate emergency to be spending $40 billion-plus on fossil fuel subsidies, including billions of dollars in direct corporate welfare from the taxpayer to facilitate fossil fuel projects.

To put that in perspective, compare that $40 billion to the $97 million contribution over four years to the Great Barrier Reef in this budget. I support money going to the Great Barrier Reef. It's not going to fix the problem. Only acting on emissions is going to fix the problem—no more new oil, gas and coal—but I do support that money going to the Barrier Reef. The Barrier Reef is, clearly, a World Heritage listed international gem. It contributes $6.4 billion annually to this country's GDP and it employs 64,000 people, so it is very important that we try to do whatever we can to help the Great Barrier Reef.

But I want to raise today that there's no money in this budget for the Great Barrier Reef's southern sister, the Great Southern Reef, which spans from New South Wales down through Victoria and Tasmania and across to South Australia. This system of temperate reefs contributes nearly $10 billion annually—nearly double what the Great Barrier Reef contributes to our economy. Of course, these are absolutely critical ecosystems, so it's disappointing that there's nothing in here for the Great Southern Reef. Look at the money that's going to the Great Barrier Reef; for example, the government has spent $1.6 billion in the last five years. What have they spent on the Great Southern Reef? Only around $30 million.

If you look at one of the programs on the Great Barrier Reef, hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years have gone to tackling the crown-of-thorns starfish outbreak, but only $4 million over 20 years has gone to tackling Centrostephanus, the long-spined sea urchin that is creating barrens in our oceans and devastating commercial fisheries, ecosystems and local communities. There's a lot the government has to do to fund research and adaption measures down in the Great Southern Reef. There are amazing people down there. You're going to be hearing a lot more from the Greens on this in the months to come, and we're looking forward to getting some budget outcomes in the next few years as— (Time expired)

5:23 pm

Photo of Matt O'SullivanMatt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

The Treasurer had his big night last night. If you think we're disappointed by this budget, you can't imagine the disappointment the Australian people and, indeed, those in my home state of Western Australia must be feeling. All this budget told those in Western Australia is that there will be much more financial hurt and pain for their household budgets.

Be in no doubt: we are in a cost-of-living crisis. Things are going to get a lot worse before they're going to get better. The cost of living is going up. Power prices are going up. Gas prices are going up. Taxes are going up. Western Australians will have to spend more in their budgets just to be able to make ends meet.

One reliable way of putting downward pressure on inflation is to put a limit on spending, but this budget contains measures that are actually going to put upward pressure on inflation. Let me give you an example. We've got $4.5 billion in here for so-called cheaper child care. That sounds noble, but we know, by this government's own admission, that this policy will not add a single childcare place. Worse still, it's likely to drive up the cost of child care. The increased subsidy will be swallowed up and will have further inflationary impacts. On the issue of no extra places, can someone from the Labor Party please explain to someone that's living in a childcare desert how an increased subsidy is going to help their costs of living if they can't actually access a childcare place in the first place?

Despite ruling it out before the election, what we've seen is that the retiree tax is back. Labor's sneaky new tax will slug people who invest their own savings in superannuation, people who have worked hard and saved for a better retirement. Labor will now hit retirees and investors with a new $555 million tax, depriving investors of franking credits which they had previously relied on.

This government has been in power for just five months. In that time, we've seen interest rates rise for five consecutive months. That's an increase of 2.25 per cent in five months, the most rapid increase in nearly three decades. Inflation is out of control. Before the last election, the then opposition leader repeatedly told Australians that Labor would cut power prices for families and small businesses by $275. Despite the Treasurer telling the National Press Club today that it was in the budget, Labor have not included it. It's a broken promise.

When Australians think that it couldn't get much worse under this government, now this government turns around and slashes funding for rural and regional Australia with the abolition of the coalition's Building Better Regions Fund, the BBRF. This is a great program which supported Australians living in non-metropolitan regions. It highlights that this government is completely city-centric. It's very clear that this budget is all about helping the re-election campaign of the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews. In the electorate of O'Connor in Western Australia, there were 20 BBRF round 6 applications, two of which were from the Shire of Katanning to facilitate an early childhood hub and one of which was from the Shire of Laverton to facilitate an upgrade of the airport at Laverton. These are the kinds of important projects that are needed by these local communities, which will now miss out because of Labor's poor treatment of regional Western Australia.

Last night's budget was a missed opportunity. It further underlined that this government is very good at talking but slow on taking responsibility and slow on bringing forward a plan to make life better for those in Western Australia. They're not providing for our communities. There is real pain in this budget. Have no doubt about that. Western Australian families know this year's Christmas will be very different to previous years. Instead, this government is too busy rewriting history books and blaming everyone else for the job that they have been elected to do.

Photo of Louise PrattLouise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

The time for consideration of the MPI has expired.

(Quorum formed)