Cost of Living
Transcript
Ms WARE (Hughes) (16:07): I rise to speak on the matter of public importance today, which is the collapse in Australia's living standards under this government, and I thank the member for Hume for bringing this very important matter before the House.
After two years and nine months of this Albanese Labor government, the cost of living for Australians has collapsed by 8.7 per cent. When we talk about living standards having decreased so much, Australians now are clearly blaming the Prime Minister and this government for the hit that they have taken to their disposable income. The Albanese Labor government has absolutely failed to rein in inflation. Despite figures that were published last week, no Australian that I've spoken to and no-one in my electorate, when I've been out doorknocking and doing mobile offices—nobody has said, yes, suddenly groceries are less or they feel that food is less. And it's not. Food is up 12 per cent under this government, since 2022. Since May 2022, food has gone up by 12 per cent. Electricity is up by 32 per cent.
Even today, during question time, the minister for energy stood there and said renewables are the cheapest form of energy. Deputy Speaker, I can tell you that in my electorate of Hughes they simply do not believe this. They do not believe it. Their insurance, for example, is up by 18 per cent; gas, 36 per cent; and electricity, 32 per cent. For those who own homes and are paying off a mortgage, under this government, in only two years and nine months, there have been 12 successive interest rate rises. That means that the average Australian paying the average mortgage has paid $50,000 in additional mortgage repayments, in additional interest rates. The only winner out of that has been the banks. And that doesn't even account for the greater increases that small businesses have had to pay on their business loans. Look at what they've had to pay on their overdrafts, for example. We have seen the decimation of small business under this government, under this Prime Minister's stewardship: 27,000 small businesses have collapsed under this government, under this Prime Minister and under this Treasurer.
Like most members in this place, over Christmas I first of all went out and did a lot of local schools. Whether it was at Ingleburn, whether it was at Macquarie Fields, whether it was in Sutherland, Jannali, Engadine, Moorebank or Wattle Grove, parents there all said the same thing: that they were really struggling to work out how they were going to pay for Christmas and they were struggling to work out how they were going to afford to have the family get-togethers that we love over Christmas. Holidays had been cancelled because they simply couldn't afford it. There was something that really upset me. I was doorknocking through Bardia, which is part of south-west Sydney, an area that I've now inherited. On three occasions, I had a woman open the door and, when I asked, 'How are you? How are you finding things?' burst into tears and say to me, 'I don't know how I'm going to get the kids any Christmas presents.' That's south-west Sydney. That should be Middle Australia.
In the Australia that I've grown up in, we have never been at this state. When I've been out to our charity organisations, they say now that families with two incomes, for the first time in their lives, are coming in and saying: 'I have no groceries. I have no way of feeding my family this year.' Living standards have collapsed under this government, and it's a disgrace.