STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator BABET (Victoria—United Australia Party Whip) (13:47): The Albanese government today celebrates its latest cost-of-living masterstroke, a tax cut. How much is it? Five bucks a week, just enough to buy, well, probably not much, actually.

Decent coffee? I don't think so. Half a sandwich?

Maybe, if the cafe didn't update its price list for 10 years or so! A beer? Not even at the local lawn bowls club.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers proudly presents this as relief for struggling Aussies. Unfortunately the Reserve Bank appears determined to steal that relief before anyone has any time to spend it. Economists are warning that another interest rate rise could arrive as early as August, adding roughly 28 bucks a week to the average mortgage repayment.

In other words, the government is handing Australians a band aid, while another arm of the state is warming up a chainsaw. It's a remarkable political achievement, really. Imagine setting fire to someone's house and then arriving with a garden hose with about a cup of water in the hose, demanding applause for your 'compassion', if you can call it that.

The trouble is families live in the real world. They pay with money, and that money seems to evaporate faster than Prime Minister Albanese's promises. The script doesn't change.

It never changes. Government keep spending freely, and then they say, 'Inflation stays stubborn.' Then the Reserve Bank tightens policy, mortgage holders suffer, Canberra announces another microscopic rebate, and round and round we go. It's the same thing all the time.

Australians are not asking for miracles. We simply want the government to stop congratulating itself for giving back a few bucks with one hand while quietly taking more with the other hand. That's all we want.