National Security, Economy, Cost of Living
Transcript
Ms WARE (Hughes) (16:17): A government's most important obligation is to keep its citizens safe. This MPI today concerns both the safety of Australians and the disposable income and wealth of Australians. I have two questions. Do Australians feel safer now than they did in May 2022? Do Australians feel poorer or better off than they did in May 2022? The No. 1 duty of the government and the Prime Minister of the day is to keep Australians safe and also make Australians feel that they are safe. That involves ensuring that proper processes are in place that mean that the government is properly ensuring that everybody that wants to come to our country, particularly those who are coming from war-torn areas, are subject to processes to ensure they have not been radicalised, for example, and are going to continue the great tradition of multiculturalism we have in this country.
But we have seen in question time this week, on very sensible questions that have been put to the Prime Minister and to the immigration minister, is a failure to be able to ensure that those processes are in place—processes that have been in place under successive governments for many decades. Today in question time I asked the Prime Minister a question. I asked him about the government's policy. Is it now the Australian government's policy that sympathy for Hamas, a listed terrorist organisation, is not grounds for visa refusal or cancellation? The Prime Minister was unable to answer that question and instead treated it with contempt and went off on some tangent about polling and some other ridiculous nonsense, again demonstrating that he could not convince anybody in this chamber that he was in a position to keep Australians safe.
Let us turn to inflation. After more than two years, this government has completely failed Australians on the economy. As well as having an obligation to keep Australians safe, governments have an obligation to facilitate an economy where every Australian who wants to can get ahead and where Australians can earn and keep more of what they earn. But what we have seen over two years is $315 billion worth of spending. That's $30,000 for every single Australian household. That spending has directly caused the inflation rate to be where it is—the highest out of any of the G10 countries. Our inflation rate's higher and that has kept interest rates at a higher level for longer. It's not just me saying it; it is the Reserve Bank Governor, Michele Bullock, last week. While ever inflation remains high, interest rates remain high.
What that means for people in my electorate—people in southern and south-western Sydney—is that things are a lot harder. They know that they have had nearly an eight per cent drop in their disposable income. Whether they're in Engadine, Ingleburn, Heathcote, Holsworthy, Glenfield, Menai, Moorebank, Bangor or Bundeena, they know that their mortgages and their rents have gone up by 15 per cent. Those who hold mortgages, and there are 22,000 of them in my electorate, have now paid more than $35,000 in interest payments over two years that they did not pay under the former government. That is directly the result of this government's overspending.
This is causing Australians to have to make real choices about their spending. Do they enrol their children in summer sports this year? What after-school activities can they still afford to do? Can they go to the movies on the weekend? Can they go out to dinner? What are they going to do about Christmas this year?
This is a government and a Prime Minister that has failed Australians with security and it's failed Australians with the economy. (Time expired)