PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Mr REBELLO (McPherson) (12:25): I move: That this House: (1) condemns the Government for failing to ease the cost of living crisis, with inflation still at 3.5 per cent and housing costs rising 5 per cent over the year to July 2026; (2) notes Australian families continue to pay more for everyday essentials, with food prices rising 3.2 per cent, health costs 3.8 per cent and education costs 4.8 per cent over the year; (3) recognises the pressure that is being felt across Australian households, with living costs rising 3.7 per cent for employee households and 4.7 per cent for age pensioner households over the year to June 2026; and (4) calls: (a) out the Government for failing to get household pressures under control, with the cash rate at 4.35 per cent following three increases in 2026 and mortgage interest charges rising 8.2 per cent in the June quarter; and (b) on the Government to take responsibility, restore economic discipline and deliver meaningful relief from the rising costs of housing, food, mortgages and other household essentials.
I move this motion on behalf of the millions of Australians who are bearing the brunt of this government's bad economic policies, and many of those Australians are in my electorate on the Gold Coast, and I recognise we have the member for Moncrieff as well. This is something that we both share: our passion for addressing this cost-of-living crisis that this government has created.
This motion—it's ironic, because the statistics that were used in this motion are already outdated, such is the incompetence of this government. From the time that I wrote this motion, we have seen an increase in inflation. It's now at four per cent in Australia.
We have seen yet another interest rate rise. This is the 16th interest rate rise that this government have presided over in their term of office. We now see Australians suffering even more so than they did at the time that I put pen to paper on this motion.
As we all know on this side of the House, Australians are working harder and paying more, but what are we seeing? We're seeing them go backwards. Inflation, as I said, climbed to four per cent, with housing costs up five per cent over the year.
Rate rises after rate rises—we're seeing this issue now as unique and isolated. We haven't had a cash rate at 4.6 per cent since 2011. That should tell you something.
On the ground, what does it mean? It means that insurance payments are up 43 per cent. Gas and household fuels are up 36 per cent, electricity up 32 per cent, rents up 20 for education 22.9, and health almost 20 per cent.
With this government, it is ideology first and Australians second, because, under Labor, we're seeing power prices and energy costs at all-time highs. It's not just the individuals that are suffering; it's businesses that are suffering. We have thousands of incredible businesses on the Gold Coast who do the right thing.
They work hard, they pay their staff, they generate employment, and they generate wealth in this country, but they're paying for expensive energy at the power point, the petrol pump and the supermarket checkout. While the world is abandoning net zero, Labor is ideologically pushing ahead at the expense of every Australian. We've seen this government preside over the largest mass migration program in this country, with 1.5 million additional migrants that have come to this country—roughly the size of the population of Adelaide or more than double the size of the Gold Coast.
What that means on the ground is, when housing can't keep up, that additional demand puts pressure on rents and availability, which not only does a disservice to Australians but also does a disservice to the new Australians that are coming here as well. We're seeing rents soaring. Homeownership is slipping further out of reach, and Australians are paying the price left, right and centre.
While the government and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy can issue press releases left, right and centre, a press release is not a house. It's not a cheaper power bill. It's an ideological obsession, ultimately, that the Labor Party dresses up in fancy words.
Ultimately, this goes to the heart of the ideology of what's coming out of this government. They're focused on redistributing what we already have as opposed to remembering that, at the end of the day, somebody has to grow it and create it. Those somebodies are individuals and businesses.
We have a 'taxaholic' Treasurer who says he understands tax and how to use taxes, but he doesn't know how to grow this economy. The government, at the end of the day, has the power to address this crisis. They have the power to address this cost-of-living crisis.
They can do so if they're focused on the long-term interests of this country, if they reconsider their government spending and if they actually impose upon themselves the same standards that they expect of the people that they govern—that is, fiscal restraint. Families have tightened their belts. Small businesses have tightened their belts.
But Canberra hasn't. There is an addiction to government spending in this country. It's fuelling inflation and it's fuelling this cost-of-living crisis.
The government should be ashamed.