QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator DUNIAM (Tasmania—Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) (15:23): I think there are many things to take note of in the question time we've just had. There's one thing missing from everything we heard today and indeed some of the contributions that we'll hear from government senators during take note over the next little while, and that is the date on which they'll start taking responsibility for things that happen on their watch rather than pointing to the past, the Ukraine conflict, the Middle East or COVID.

It is unbelievable that we are a good way into the second term of this government and we're still talking about the last government, from four years ago—nearly half a decade ago. We're still blaming them as if nothing that has happened in the intervening period is in any way their responsibility. Australians will wise up to this.

I think they expect the government to tackle the challenges that it faces and to do so in a way where they take some responsibility. We heard here today, in relation to questions around the inflation figures that came out, that it's not their problem. It was all about the last government—what this government was left with and how it's had to tackle that.

It's not the last government's fault that this government can't get its spending under control and that government spending is driving inflation in a big way. That is something that is going to ensure the Reserve Bank, next Tuesday, on Melbourne Cup Day, doesn't hand down an interest rate cut. That means homeowners with mortgages that are struggling—we heard about them just now—will not get that much-needed relief when it comes to their mortgage repayments.

So to stand here and say, 'It's everyone else's fault; it's out of our control; we're doing the best we can,' and then make no effort to actually address the problems, despite what is said, I think is absolutely galling. It is this government that makes its decisions about how it spends more money than it has and how it taxes more and more of the money that Australians work so hard for to prop up their bottom line.

On the issue of housing that people can't afford to get into, we heard about how this government is failing to build houses, to do that basic task. We as a society, a developed country and a democratic nation aren't able to do that with all of the billions being ploughed into the Housing Australia Future Fund, which has bought, not built, 500 homes, thereby displacing others from the housing market, not opening it up and broadening people's ability to get into the housing market.

It's making it harder because we're competing with homebuyers. It's absolutely not what this scheme was designed to do. You've got these policy fails all around the country, causing more problems and more difficulty for Australian households, for individuals, for businesses and for the economy more broadly, but no responsibility has been taken by this government.

It is going to wear off soon enough. I really do hope that Australians wise up to that. When we got to Minister Ayres and asking him about the at-risk list for industrial facilities across our country and, specifically, what's on there when this same issue came up yesterday, we were told, 'You can't ask about these issues, because you're politicising the workers.' No.

I'm sorry, but these questions get asked because we are concerned about the tens of thousands of workers in heavy-emitting industries and smelters that create the aluminium, the steel and the other products we need in this country. We ask these questions because we're worried about their jobs, because this government has set up an environment in which it is impossible for these facilities to compete internationally.

Energy prices are through the roof. Apparently, it's everyone else's fault; it's got nothing to do with this government. It's all beyond their control—not their green schemes, not their safeguard mechanism, not their labour laws which have driven up the cost of how to do business in this country.

In my own home state of Tasmania, the Bell Bay Aluminium smelter and LIBERTY Bell Bay are two smelters employing nearly 1,000 people in regional Tasmania and struggling with the same issue that all of these energy-intensive operators are dealing with—high energy costs. There is no assurance for these operators about their future here, just a lot of words. This government has this 'made in Australia' policy, but that is absolutely not what is happening here, when you've got a government that is making it impossible for manufacturing to be a part of our economy.

We don't make cars anymore, we don't make appliances and, soon enough, we won't be making the materials we need to build the homes we're not building. This is a recipe for disaster. This government needs to wake up, start taking responsibility and do the right thing.