QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator LIDDLE (South Australia—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (15:22): That was extraordinary—talking about the share of the pie. What we need to do is actually grow the pie so that everybody prospers, not rip off older Australians who can't find a way to put additional money in their pockets. Uncertainty not only kills them; it kills businesses.
It kills aspiration. It kills just about everything. That's what you actually get from Labor.
What's the point of working hard when Labor just looks for an opportunity to take from that hard work, rent seeking in your head and your house? That's what it's about. You would think that everything was fine out there, but it's not for Australians.
Delusional deflection is what you get from Labor. You only have to take a walk around the streets of Adelaide. There are four cabinet ministers in the Labor government here in this chamber.
Walk around the streets of Adelaide and what you see is more people pushing trolleys around because they're homeless. More people are struggling. You only have to stand at a check-out to hear more people saying: 'Wow!
This is just getting tougher all the time.' You hear it when you're actually out there with the people, not in this Canberra bubble. Since Labor came to office, productivity has fallen nearly five per cent. That's cause and effect.
That actually affects every single Australian. When inflation goes up, you've got less money in your pocket, not more. You're going to struggle to pay for that loaf of bread more than you did weeks before.
Inflationary increases are important for every Australian. It's not just a buzzword; it actually has an effect on your everyday life, on your pay packet and on your family. It is harder when inflation is higher, and it is those folks on the other side that have made sure their policies have had inflation higher for longer.
You don't have to look anywhere else. That's why you're doing it tough. Australians have had the worst decade of productivity growth since modern records began.
That's not by accident; that's by design. It's the design of those guys on the other side. It's their policies created in here that have no regard for their effect on the ground, on business or on the people that cause those outcomes for Australians.
That's Labor's problem in a nutshell. You heard them celebrating economic statistics while Australians are going backwards in real life. We've got Australians who can't pay their mortgage.
We've got Australians who are finding it really hard to pay for their grocery bill. They told us that, under their economic reforms—the so-called tax reforms, which were just really about a grab into your pocket to make sure they can pay for their budget black hole. That's not managing the economy.
That's just grabbing from anybody who's got a bit of money in their pocket—from you, from those older Australians, from anybody who takes a second job. Do you know the person that benefits when the economy is really tough, when inflation goes up? It's those guys on the other side.
They collect more GST. They're getting more and more taxes from you, and your wages go down. That's not the way you create prosperity in this country for anyone.
Business is the engine room of the economy. Energy is everything, and those people have failed you on that. (Time expired) Question agreed to.