MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (15:52): This matter of public importance debate is entitled 'the need for the government to be clear with Australians as to why they are worse off', and I could think of no more important thing to be discussing today than Australians out there who are hurting—Australians who are wondering how they are going to meet the costs of today and, certainly, tomorrow.

And Australians are hurting. They are juggling all sorts of financial responsibilities and hardships with energy. We heard so often from those opposite, including the Prime Minister on no less than 97 occasions, that there'd be a $275 electricity price cut.

Well, that has not materialised. In fact, it's quite the opposite, because power costs have just gone up and up and up. Then, of course, we heard that the economy was the big issue and the cost of living was the big issue.

And yet, for its first term, this Labor government talked about the Voice and very little other than that. Of course, that failed. That referendum went down.

And then, indeed, the government started reflecting on the fact that there was a cost-of-living crisis. But, by that stage, the genie was already out of the bottle. Then, of course, we had the government initially against gas.

I know I'm sitting opposite the Minister for Resources now. They've suddenly had this nirvana and gas is important. I will give the Minister for Resources her due.

She was there with the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Lia Finocchiaro, just the other day to look at, talk about and talk up, indeed, the Beetaloo Basin. It is a crucial development. Whatever can be done to enhance that project and bring it further to bear, then we're all well and good.

We know the crossbench are against it, but, let me tell you, gas is the answer to many of our energy woes. There are a whole host of things that we need to do in the energy space that this Labor government does not want to go anywhere near. Yet we also know that we have a housing crisis, and we do.

Since coming to office, this Labor Party has overseen the construction industry in freefall. There are fewer homes as well. Australia is completing just 173,000 homes per year against the roughly 240,000 needed to meet its own target.

At the current rate, Labor will fall around 335,000 homes short of its 1.2 million homes promise. I would almost argue that's pretty close for Labor; it doesn't ever get figures too close. Builders are going broke.

Almost 13,000 construction businesses have become insolvent since Labor came to office, which was May 2022. That's an average of around 60 businesses every week at exactly the same time Australia desperately needs more homes. In the state of Victoria, they're locking up the timber industry.

You just cannot make this stuff up. It's not just the construction industry; it's the transport sector. When trucks aren't able to do what they need to do, Australia stops.

They deliver every good known to humankind. I can hear the chatter up there from the back from the member for Hasluck. I know she's agreeing with me.

I know she's absolutely getting behind what I'm saying about the transport sector because she comes from Western Australia, and I know how large Western Australia is. It needs a viable, profitable transport sector. It does, but, under Labor, every cost to deal with the construction sector and the transport sector has gone through the roof, and it's simply not good enough.

Then, of course, we're also talking about Australians being worse off: look at what we're doing with veterans. I would implore the government to, once again—the member for Maribyrnong did plenty of imploring, and I'm going to do some of my own—scrap that cap. We need to make sure that we scrap that $5,000 allied health cap.

Ms Briskey: It's not a cap. Mr McCORMACK: It is a cap. Call it a threshold, call it a limit, or call it whatever you like.

It is a restriction on allied health services for our veterans—those who've worn a uniform proudly and courageously for this country. They deserve better than what they're being served up by this government.