MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator DEAN SMITH (Western Australia) (16:56): In just the last four years, Australians have experienced a collapse in their living standards. Real wages have gone backwards, Australians are poorer today than they were four years ago, and productivity in our country has gone backwards for the first time in history. Australians no longer believe that tomorrow will be better than today, and that is an indictment on the performance of Labor in government.
Labor people are now criticising this Labor government. Not ordinary Labor people but luminaries in the Labor movement are now criticising this Labor government—none more important and influential than Mr Bill Kelty, who was the leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions for 17 years. He has now found it necessary to come out and to criticise Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Labor treasurer Jim Chalmers.
Don't believe me. Listen to what Bill Keelty has had to say himself—a former secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions for 17 years. Mr Bill Kelty has said: Real wages are not improving in any significant way—they're falling.
Bill Kelty has said that Australians can't pay their bills and that housing affordability is worsening because interest rates are rising and real wages are falling. Unfortunately, that situation is only going to get worse for Australian families, as economists now predict there will be two future RBA rate rises in this year alone. Think about that: two more RBA rate rises in this year alone.
The RBA's job is like that of a teacher: it marks the government's work—specifically in regard to how well the government is managing the economy. When interest rates go up, that is a sign that the RBA believes the government is not managing the economy well. Bill Kelty had more to say about Jim Chalmers, the Labor treasurer.
He said: You had the treasurer say workers should be happy because their wage share is increasing, but their real wages are falling. He went on to accuse Dr Chalmers, the Labor treasurer, of being 'ridiculous'. Bill Kelty said: It's just ridiculous and people get offended by it.
They can't pay the bills, and you— the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers— tell them your share of GDP is growing. But there's more. Bill Kelty, the former ACTU leader, couldn't hold back.
He went on to say: The PM is telling the country with glee that the price of property is falling, yet the unaffordability rate is increasing. Because interest rates are rising and real wages are falling. So my challenge to Labor senators this afternoon is to stand up and tell this Senate chamber why Bill Kelty, ACTU leader for 17 years, is wrong.
Why is Bill Kelty wrong? Why is he wrong to accuse the Treasurer of being ridiculous? Why is the Prime Minister wrong?
This is where things have landed. Australian families need to strap themselves in. They need to put their economic seatbelts on.
They need to put their cost-of-living helmets on because things, unfortunately, are going to get significantly worse. And they get worse because the government has failed its primary task. The Labor government has failed its primary task, and that is to manage the economy in a way that benefits Australian families and that helps them to think better about tomorrow than they do about today.
Today, media outlets are reporting that Australian voters have woken up. They know that Labor has failed them on the economy. The next election will be fought on cost-of-living and economic issues, and people will mark Labor down.
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