STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr PASIN (Barker) (13:54): Under Labor, Australians are paying more, they're working harder and they're going backwards. Those opposite have presided over the worst collapse in Australian living standards in the developed world. Labor believes government should spend more and it should tax more, and it has completely failed to get its spending under control.

Government spending is fuelling inflation, punishing Australians with higher interest rates. Real wages are in decline, there are increasing rents and increasing taxes, and people are taking home less at the end of the day. Australians are paying more for everything under those opposite and their cost-of-living crisis—more for energy, more for food, more for education, more for health, more for everything.

Prosperity comes from productivity, not bigger government. Yet productivity has fallen under those opposite. Labor's record spending is leaving future generations of Australians saddled with $1 trillion of debt.

Madam Deputy Speaker Claydon, I know deep in your heart you know the coalition believes in something very different, and only the coalition has a plan to back hard work, to back reward, to back aspiration, to grow the economy and restore our standards of living, because the coalition knows that Australia is worth fighting for.