MOTIONS
Senator WHITTEN (Western Australia) (16:52): It's heartbreaking how few Australians can say they are better off now than when Labor took over four years ago. In this amazing country of ours, we've been accustomed to our standard of living increasing year on year, generation after generation. But, under this Labor government, that trend has been shattered.
Too many families are treading water or slipping backwards. Real wages have plummeted to 2011 levels. And don't give me your 'Every working Australian gets a tax cut'—seriously!
Oprah was giving away cars, but not Labor: 'You get a cup of coffee, you get a cup of coffee!' Australians haven't had a real pay rise in 15 years, and these pitiful tax cuts will be eaten up by inflation within the year. In my home state of Western Australia, we're hearing from more and more people that the escalating price of groceries has become their biggest concern.
Since Labor took office, the cost of the weekly shop has exploded, adding hundreds of dollars for just the basics. What is driving these ballooning prices? One of the fundamental drivers is energy prices.
Energy reaches into every corner of the economy. No work is done without it. Whether it's diesel, gas or electricity, it is the most fundamental input of any enterprise—and food is no exception.
But now, for the first time, many Australians are having to make decisions that put a country as wealthy as ours to shame—to heat their homes or put food on the table, to stay cool in summer or skip the essentials. Energy prices driven by deliberate Labor policy have smashed our country's most vulnerable people. The long-term increase of power prices over the last 10 years, under the Paris Agreement, has been staggering.
Electricity prices have run at twice the rate of general inflation. And since this Labor government's promise of $275 off your power bill, we have seen power bills rise by more than 25 per cent. Remember 'We've done the modelling—oh, hang on: we've changed our position; it's not our modelling anymore'?
The renewables obsession has driven up costs, through intermittency, expensive grid upgrades and the early retirement of cheap base-load coal plants. These higher energy costs flow straight into the price of food, through production, processing, storage and transport. The mismanagement of our energy system borders on criminal.
It is driven by ideology, not reason or economics. The attack on energy is putting our farmers under enormous pressure. They face skyrocketing input costs for energy, fertiliser, transport and, on top of that, the regulatory burdens of climate policies.
Australia is a food powerhouse. We produce far more than we consume, exporting around 70 per cent of our agricultural output and importing only about 11 per cent of our food. But our food systems are under threat.
Productive land is being sequestered under climate change targets for carbon credits, taking it out of food production and adding pressure on remaining farmland and rural communities. Prime agricultural land is precious, and we need to have strong support to keep it in the hands of our Australian farmers, who have cared for the land for generations. But under the current strain we are seeing farmers sell off farmland to foreign corporates to make ends meet.
Around 50 million hectares is now under foreign control. That's roughly the size of Spain and Portugal combined. We cannot take our strong agricultural heritage for granted.
Our self-sufficient food system is part of what built Australia into the great nation it is today. But the recent energy shock from the Iran conflict has highlighted just how vulnerable our food production is, with fertiliser supplies caught short. Australia is the third-highest producer of gas in the world.
Why don't we produce our own fertiliser? It is because this Labor government doesn't want the emissions from the production, even though the countries we buy it from most likely use our gas to produce it. Labor has strangled this vital industry to death through carbon taxes and environmental regulations.
It's not just a disaster for food prices; it's a disaster for national food security. All of this accumulates in the hip pockets of Australians, with our most vulnerable impacted the worst. Australians deserve better, and there is a clear, positive path forward to mitigate these problems and unlock the next golden era of Australia: cut government spending by targeting waste, reducing the bloated bureaucracy, scrapping programs that duplicate functions between federal and state governments, and ending subsidies for intermittent energy.
This will deliver billions of dollars in savings every year. Cooling public demand will help bring inflation under control and create room for real cost-of-living relief without adding to debt burden. We will end subsidies for renewable energy.
If it can't stand on its own economic merits, the taxpayer will not be propping it up—no more billions of taxpayer dollars being poured into projects that have failed to provide affordable or reliable power. We will focus on reliable, affordable, dispatchable base-load power from our incredible resources, like coal, gas and nuclear. These will deliver stable, low-cost electricity around the clock and help to ease prices throughout the economy, including the weekly shop.
We will support the farmers, who feed the country, and ensure that our prime agricultural land stays in the hands of Australians. Implementing these measures to drive down the cost of the basics is a top priority—more money back in the pockets of everyday Australians. We have the land, we have the resources, and we have the skills and the people.
What has been missing is the will and the courage to change course from policies that have failed. This vision is achievable, it is necessary and it will deliver a brighter future for every Australian family. One Nation has a vision and a plan.