MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator DEAN SMITH (Western Australia) (17:25): Labor is in crisis. Labor's budget is in crisis. Labor luminaries are now criticising Labor prime ministers and Labor treasurers.
None other than Bill Kelty, the former secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, has called it out. He has said that the approach of Dr Jim Chalmers, the Labor Treasurer, is insulting to voters. Bill Kelty has said that Labor is actively isolating itself from traditional Labor voters.
Bill Kelty has said that Labor's spin will not fix the economy. 'Who is Bill Kelty?' I hear you ask. Bill Kelty is the architect of the Prices and Incomes Accord. He is part-architect of compulsory superannuation in this country.
He is part-architect of restoring Medicare. He is part-architect of the consolidation of the Australian trade union movement in our recent past. So this is no ordinary Labor person criticising the Labor Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and the Labor Treasurer.
This is, if you like, the king of the Australian labour movement criticising the Labor Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and the Labor Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. But Bill Kelty is just saying to Australians what they already know—that life has got much harder for Australians and that Australian families are getting poorer and poorer by the day. After four years of the Albanese Labor government, Australians are working harder than ever but falling further behind.
Every trip to the supermarket costs more. Electricity bills continue to rise. Insurance premiums have surged.
Mortgage repayments remain painfully high and will go higher if economist predictions are correct. Those predictions are for two further RBA rate rises in this year alone. Rents continue to climb, and small businesses are struggling under higher wages, higher energy costs, higher borrowing costs and an ever-growing mountain of regulation.
This is not bad luck. It is the consequence of four years of economic mismanagement by this Albanese Labor government. Labor has fuelled inflation through reckless spending and then quietly profited through bracket creep.
Australians who receive a pay rise simply to keep pace with inflation are pushed into higher brackets and pay more tax despite being no better off. Labor calls it economic management. It is stealth tax on hard work and aspiration.
Nowhere is Labor's failure more obvious than on housing. The Albanese government encouraged thousands of young Australians into the housing market with just a five per cent deposit while simultaneously driving demand through record migration and failing to increase housing supply. As housing markets have cooled and economists warn now of further price falls, thousands of first home buyers, particularly in Perth's outer suburbs in my home state, are being left exposed to negative equity, owing more on their mortgage than their home is worth.
These young Western Australians did exactly what the government encouraged them to do. They worked hard, they saved for their deposit and they bought their first home. Labor has rewarded that ambition by leaving many burdened with record debt and virtually no financial buffer.
Of course, Labor's record migration has only made the matter worse. Population growth has far outstripped housing construction, placing ever greater pressure on housing affordability, rents and essential infrastructure. There is a better way.
The coalition will restore balance by ensuring that migration is linked to the nation's capacity to build homes and to provide the infrastructure communities need. The coalition also believes that Australians should come first. Our migration and welfare systems must prioritise Australian citizens, protect the integrity of our borders and ensure that those who embrace Australian values and contribute to our nation are the most welcomed, while maintaining a sustainable migration program that works in Australia's national interest.
Labor is in crisis. The budget is in tatters, and Labor voters around the country are now being left with nowhere to hide. Things are about to get significantly worse for Australian families under Labor.