MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator O'SULLIVAN (Western Australia—Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) (17:28): Anyone who spends any time engaging with the community, talking to real people—not just the people here, not just talking to the bureaucrats, not just talking to the economists, but actually talking to real mums and dads, people across Australia—knows that Australians are doing it tough.
While Australian parents are tightening their belts, this Labor government continues their class act in this place on their so-called generational tax reform. But everyday mums and dads won't be fooled. They know the truth.
They know the truth because they are living it every single day. Every payday, parents are sitting around the kitchen table making impossible decisions—decisions about what bills can wait, whether they can afford child care, whether their last rent increase will be the one that forces them to have to move. Australian families will not be sold the dream by this Labor government that everything is getting better, because they know the truth.
They know that it is not the fact. Yet we hear it, time and again, whether it's in question time or whether it's in contributions to speeches. No doubt, whoever gets up after me on the Labor side will try to give the impression that everything's okay and that their prudent management of the Australian economy is actually assisting Australians make ends meet.
But Australians know that they're not able to make ends meet because of the poor economic decisions that this government is making. The reality is that the cost of raising a family has gone up under this government. It's a sad day when Australians are forced to do double-takes at the supermarket, when their electricity bill arrives and every time they pull up at the fuel bowser.
They know that the stats are there, because they feel it every day. The latest ABS data shows that, from May 2025 to May 2026, meat and seafood prices increased by 5.4 per cent. How do Australians know that?
Because they're paying it all the time, every time they go to the supermarket. Dairy products rose by 5.2 per cent, fruit and vegetable prices increased by two per cent and clothing and footwear costs have risen by five per cent. Before the election, Australians were promised $275 in lower power prices, a promise the Prime Minister repeated 97 times.
Instead, electricity prices have increased 21.1 per cent over the last year alone. The reality is that Australians are no longer just cutting back on discretionary spending, like their weekly coffee run. Many are struggling to afford those very basic household necessities.
This is what Australians are facing. As one SBS Insight participant, Chris, simply put it, 'I have never earned more but felt so broke.' We keep hearing that wages have gone up. Well, not real wages.
Real wages are the difference between what it actually costs you to live and the money you're earning—the amount of discretionary fund power that you've got with your salary that you're earning. We know that Australians are not actually, in real terms, earning more, because they're struggling to make ends meet. If you think it's bad, don't get me started on child care, my favourite little area of policy at the moment.
Australians are paying more. Over the last 12 months, costs have gone up 9.4 per cent. Since this government came into power and said that it's going to promise cheaper child care, guess how much it's gone up?
Acting Deputy President Cox, do you know? I can tell you: costs have gone up 27 per cent. Yet they promised cheaper child care, this lot over here.
Australians are feeling it every day. Many people are having to engage with child care because it's necessary to get back into work. Two people have to work in a household now, just to pay the bills, just to pay the mortgage, just to pay the rent, just to put food on the table.
Yet it's costing more now to go to child care than it would to put your kids in one of the top-end schools in any capital city in this country. It's actually cheaper when your kid's in year 1 in primary school at a high-fee-paying school than it is in many childcare centres across the country. Their poor management of this economy is hurting Australians, and Australians deserve so much better than this Labor government.