STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator WHITTEN (Western Australia) (13:39): I, like many in this room, lived through the 1990s recession. I remember the toll it took on my parents. They lost everything in 'the recession we had to have'.
When I look around today at the state the Labor government has put this country in, with massive debts, falling productivity, no fuel security, a spiralling cost of living and interest rates heading up, it makes my blood boil. I feel for the young people that haven't seen this before. Reports today say that the Treasurer admits he has understated how bad the economy is going to be damaged.
He says it could be worse than COVID or the GFC. Could it be worse than Keating's disaster? And you know, if Labor admits something, the truth is so much worse.
Labor is pointing to the Iran war and wants us to believe that, if it wasn't for that, everything would be peachy. What an absolute load! Australians were hurting a long time before this started.
The RBA said the interest rate rises were not a result of the fuel shock but a reaction to already-high inflation—high inflation caused directly by Labor's spending obsession. This war has brutally exposed Labor's complete lack of planning on Australia's fuel security. The gaslighting by the Labor government is sickening.
Ministers rise in here every day to repeat the line that Australia has no oil. This is a classic Labor tactic: spin, baby, spin. They make exploration and development of anything that doesn't fit their net zero agenda impossible and then claim the market has decided it doesn't work. 'Not economically viable' is Labor code for 'we are going to bury you in red and green tape.' It is this incompetent government stacking the deck against, and gaslighting, Australians.
We have the resources. One Nation will drill, baby, drill. Labor are walking this country into recession, refusing to abandon their green fantasy, fuelling inflation and running a mass-immigration Ponzi scheme.
One Nation will put an end to the rorts, slash spending, bring immigration under control and put a— (Time expired)