MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator HANSON (Queensland—Leader of One Nation) (16:03): I move: That in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: With another rate hike looming because of Labor's out of control spending and inflation, Australians urgently need access to a 3% super pay rise enabling the average worker to save over $33,000 in interest payments on their mortgage.

With another rate hike looming because of Labor's out-of-control spending and inflation, Australians urgently need access to a three per cent super pay rise, enabling the average worker to save over $33,000 in interest payments on their mortgage. We all know as we travel the country and in our own electorates and wherever we go, people are really doing it tough, absolutely tougher under this current government than what we have ever seen in this country before.

We've got over 150,000 people homeless. We've got people losing their homes. The rents have gone up.

A lot of groceries, even just your staples, have gone up over 40 per cent to 50 per cent. I'm talking about the cost of eggs. We're talking about bread and milk—the average groceries that everyone needs to buy.

Talking about what people's mortgage is, average payments have jumped by about $1,760 a month since Labor took office. That's more than $21,000 a year or 59 per cent. Worse still, more interest rate rises are looming.

The average price of rent has jumped from $520 a week when Labor took office up to $730. That's up $210 a week or more than 40 per cent—and they're saying there's no problem out there and that they're addressing the whole issue with housing. You're not addressing the whole issue.

You've opened up the floodgates to this country with high immigration, mass migration into the country, which has caused the problem. You had the highest intake of migrants into the country that we've ever seen, and now you say, 'Oh, we've reduced immigration by 45 per cent.' You're the ones that caused the problem in the first place, and now you're trying to pat yourselves on the back for doing something about it.

What an absolute joke this is. We've seen, under this government, 50,000 small businesses go insolvent. We've got pensioners living in poverty because they can't pay the electricity bills.

You've got hundreds of thousands of people who still cannot pay their electricity bills as well. All of this is because of you. When One Nation put out our policy about the superannuation scheme, you screamed that it's inflationary.

Let me tell the people out there what our scheme is. It will enable those people who are truly struggling to access their superannuation. It is their money.

It is not your money. It is their money that they have had to put away. It's paid by the employer into their super account.

We are going to enable people, those who are renters or mortgage holders, to access their super. They can draw down three per cent, which is one quarter of their super, for a period of up to three years. That saving will be enormous for a lot of these people.

If these people are earning $90,500 a year, that would give them about $44 a week or $2,300 a year. That's a saving on their mortgage of $33,000. If you're on $120,000 a year, it will give you $59 a week.

That's a saving of $43,000 on their mortgage. Let's go to someone who's on $240,000. If they can access that super for three years, that's $118 a week.

That will save them $84,000 on their mortgage in the lifetime of that mortgage. That's going to be money in their pocket to help them. That's also going to assist them because they're now not going to lose their home.

That's what's going to happen if they don't get some relief out there. Let me just say that in this past financial year approximately 120,000 people accessed their super. That was approximately $1 billion, but the government allowed them for hardship.

Those people who are accessing their super now are paying 22 per cent tax on that to withdraw their money out of super. This is not inflationary. This is definitely not inflationary.

It's going to help people save their homes. What's inflationary is this government being out of control with its spending. You had an extra $400 billion in the coffers.

You've spent that, you've wasted that and you've still put more money on the credit card. You have no idea how to control yourselves. I'll tell you I trust the people to control their money and spend their own money before you get your grubby hands on it.

That's what I see happening. You can't control your spending, and I damn well know that you're going to turn around and want to access people's superannuation schemes.