Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Interest rates have gone up today, and for millions of people that means another hit that they simply cannot absorb. If you're sitting at home wondering how much more you're expected to cop, you're not alone. Sixty per cent of Australians are in housing stress, forced to spend more than a third of their income on housing. That is not a temporary aberration. That is a full-blown crisis. I want to talk about what that crisis looks like in real life.

Kai is in their early 30s. They did everything they were told to do. They spent their 20s working, renting and paying off their HECS debt, which is something that now takes the average person 10 full years to repay. Over that time, Kai's rent has gone up and then up again, and then up again. There are no real protections, no limits and no security. Their landlord owns five properties and can raise the rent whenever they want, and Kai just has to cop it. Buying a home feels completely out of reach.

In Australia, it is easier to buy your fifth investment property than your first home. If Kai does manage to save and get a mortgage, on average, the bank will profit more than $200,000 from Kai's home loan. Australia's banks are among the most profitable corporations in the world. Over the last decade, rents have increased by 48 per cent across our capital cities. Food is up 43 per cent; electricity is up 44 per cent. So what does all of this mean for Kai? Kai is now $52,000 worse off than they were 10 years ago, despite working harder, paying more and doing everything right.

In the face of all this, what has Kai seen from a Labor government that is now in its fourth year? They've seen talk, platitudes and policies that have made this even worse. The coalition created many of these problems by doing nothing, but Labor's approach has been smoke and mirrors—announcements designed to sound good while leaving the underlying system untouched or, worse, actively reinforcing it. Is it any wonder people feel powerless? In this country, we're promised that, if we work hard, we set up our futures and we get ahead. But, right now, for so many people, that contract feels broken.

So let's be clear about choices. Instead of spending upwards of $368 billion on submarines, Labor could build thousands of public homes, or they could wipe student debt. Instead of handing out $180 billion in tax concessions to property investors, Labor could give the seven million renters in this country—people like Kai—a fair go, with real protections and secure homes. By making big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share, Labor could lift income support above the poverty line and abolish the partner income test, or they could lower the age of the parental income test to 18. Instead of refusing to tax extreme wealth, Labor could act.

Just one year of the average increase in Australian billionaires wealth equals the annual incomes of more than 2,000 Australians. These are choices. Labor has been in government for four years, and people like Kai are still falling further behind. The question is simple: will Labor continue to prioritise property investors, billionaires and big corporations, or will they finally choose Australians like Kai? Because the Greens do, and we will keep fighting until this country works for everyone—not just the ultra-wealthy few.

Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The skyrocketing increase in your household budget is about to get worse and you can blame Labor for that. Ever-increasing household bills, groceries, record residential property prices and higher interest rates for everyone piles even more stress on ordinary Australians. The cost of just about everything—you've experienced it for yourself—has gone up under Labor. Inflation went up last week and is above the Reserve Bank target range. As expected, the announcement came today that interest rates are up too. The truth is that, when the Prime Minister told Australians the economy had turned a corner, it had not. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Increasing inflation and increasing interest rates is a trend, and today it equates to a bad day for aspiring and existing homeowners—no matter how Labor tries to spin it. Those seeking to break into the housing market know their dream of homeownership is moving out of reach. For mortgage holders, the cost of your mortgage will go up, making it harder again to get ahead. Average mortgage holders are already paying around $21,000 per year more in interest than they were under the previous government. For those renting, this means the likelihood of experiencing even higher rent for longer.

Labor would rather ignore these trends than deal with them. Productivity is down, undermining wages growth, business investment and long-term prosperity. There are more jobs, but most of them are in the public sector and paid for by your taxes. Labor's spending is growing, adding nearly $60 billion to the national credit card, and you can be assured that, when Labor need money, they'll come after yours. A new $60 billion budget black hole gets no explanation from the Albanese government other than to blame someone else—anyone else but them.

It is Labor's economic policy failures that are driving your cost of living up, and it's getting worse for South Australians in my home state. We pay the highest electricity prices in the country, and it's now about to get worse, thanks to Labor. Labor in South Australia, and this Albanese government, have announced funding for housing in South Australia. But the Master Builders Association of SA responded with a simple question: 'Who is going to build them?' Master Builders SA CEO Will Frogley asked a fair question, but he hears, like we do, another announcement without the answer. The Albanese government is good at making promises but not at keeping them. We know that the number of apprentices completing training has nosedived under Labor. Yet, under the migration program, they are bringing in yoga instructors and hairdressers. What is needed is to count completions, not enrolments, across our training system and to look at ways to increase and incentivise older Australians to take up training.

Labor is quick to talk up renewable energy and that mix in South Australia, but those in Adelaide pay more for power than those in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. It is Labor's reckless race to zero that is making it harder for ordinary Australians. The coalition's energy policy is about cheaper, more reliable energy, leveraging from our natural resources, while doing our fair share on emissions reduction.

Running a small business in South Australia has never been harder than under the South Australian and federal Labor governments. The evidence is actually in. Business insolvencies are up in South Australia, as they are nationally. In South Australia, in 2022, there were 289 insolvencies. In 2025, that figure more than tripled to around 929. You can do the maths. In any language, that's just plain bad. Labor's hydrogen hoax proved to be a flop, allocating $600 million to the project with its promise of bringing cheaper power and economic growth. Instead, it just brought debt. Then there's this week's state and federal health announcement, with the promises of benefits for South Australia. But, again, that comes against the backdrop of their failed promise to fix ambulance ramping. They didn't deliver it. They said South Australian lives depended on it; they didn't deliver it. In fact, it's gotten worse.

These many failures and broken promises are Labor's design on deliverables. Keeping it real is to be sceptical of Labor's rhetoric. Australia has experienced one of the largest declines in living standards in the developed world. This Labor government's bad economic policy is failing you, and you know it, because ordinary Australians are the ones working more for less. South Australia and this country deserve better. But Labor has no intention of delivering that and has no capacity or will to deliver that.