Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whenever someone says to me that the economy is doing well, my questions are always 'For who?' and 'Are we talking about the money economy or the social economy?' Economists and the Tasmanian Liberal government will tell you that Tassie is going great guns. It grew by 4.3 per cent in 2021-22. But—and this is a big 'but'—it is a story of two Tasmanias. If you own your own house and have a steady income, life is pretty okay, but, if you're on a low income, renting or trying to save for a house, life is damn tough and the only thing going up is your cost of living.

People used to move to Tassie because, although wages were lower on average, so was the cost of living, especially housing. But it is not like that anymore. In Tasmania, almost 3,000 homes have been removed from the rental market and the average rent is now more than 550 bucks. In some areas, it's even higher than that. Families are living hand to mouth, with some of them in tents and cars. This, in one of the wealthiest nations on earth, is absolutely shameful, and we are supposed to be the land of the fair go.

Children are growing up in households where mum and dad are unemployed, and alcohol and drug abuse are the norm. These kids will earn as much as 20 per cent less than adults with better childhoods. It's not just a moral worry; it's an economic worry. Meanwhile, our TAFEs are on their knees. The federal government has supplied fee-free TAFE places but almost nothing to fix the buildings themselves, let alone put teachers in place. I went to TAFE with my mum. She did business management, and so did I. Mum had worked in a factory for many years, and we were a low-income family living in public housing.

I honestly believe we have this back to front. We help the wealthiest by providing tax loopholes in schemes like negative gearing, but we're still not helping those that are doing it the toughest. We don't address the gap between the rich and the poor to make sure that families like mine can move into the middle class. The privileged and the struggling: is this really who we have become as a nation?