PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Ms ALDRED (Monash—Opposition Whip) (12:46): Australian families are doing it tough, and this government has failed to ease the pressure. Inflation is still 3½ per cent. Housing costs rose five per cent over the year to July.

Food is up 3.2 per cent, health is up 3.8 per cent, and education is up 4.8 per cent. Living costs for employee households rose 3.7 per cent over the year to June. For aged pensioners, they rose 4.7 per cent.

Those who can least afford it are being hit the hardest. These are not just numbers. A fortnight ago I visited the Baw Baw Food Relief centre in Warragul with the Leader of the Opposition, Angus Taylor.

We met volunteers including Mark Kleeman, Kitty McCall and Michael Gray. The centre is set out like a small supermarket so people who need their services can come in and shop from aisle to aisle and keep their dignity. The centre's busier than ever.

On an ordinary day, around 20 families come through its doors, and on some days that number reaches 50. Over the most recent 12 months reported, 2,684 local families relied on the Baw Baw Food Relief centre. That's up nine per cent on the year before.

Those families included 2,825 children in my electorate, nearly 3,000 children in one shire relying on a charity for food. The volunteers are seeing younger faces too, and they tell a story that should stop every member of this place. Some people drive into the car park, sit there and drive away again, because they cannot bring themselves to walk in and ask for help.

This is Albanese's Australia right now. Baw Baw Shire is not alone. The latest Foodbank hunger report found that one-in-three Australian households, around 3½ million, experienced food insecurity in the past year, and it should be noted that almost half of renters are food insecure.

Among households earning between $33,800 and $91,000 a year, food insecurity has climbed from 31 per cent to 37 per cent in just three years. These are working Australians, and they are running out of food. The same day I had the pleasure of hosting the Leader of the Opposition in my electorate, we also visited Blackwoods Readymixed & Garden Supplies in Warragul.

Michael Blackwood has spent 40 years building that business from a small garden supplies yard. He has built that business with his family from the ground up. It is a great success story that we are very proud of in our electorate, but right now Michael is spending around $40,000 a fortnight on fuel.

Every load of materials Michael buys carries a fuel levy from his suppliers, adding about $10 to every cubic metre he produces. Building activity has slowed at the same time. Michael is being squeezed from both directions right now.

Michael fears that experienced owners like him will just walk away, leaving regional communities with fewer independent operators. As he puts it, small businesses will diminish because it just gets too hard. When asked what would help in the Warragul& DrouinGazette, Michael's message to the government was simple: go back to the basics, cut costs, and stop wasteful spending.

Michael and his business have to run to a budget. This Albanese federal government should be expected to stick to a budget too. I was very pleased to take the Leader of the Opposition to Moe, where we held a small business roundtable with the Moe Traders Association at the fabulous Tommy Brock Cafe.

There were some terrific community leaders there. We had a really important discussion, but the running theme was the same. Costs are up, income is down, times are tough, and small-business owners have never had to work harder for less and face more risk and red tape.

We finished the day at the Longwarry Friendly Grocer, a great family small business. They've been the target of multiple ram raids, rising costs, rising crime and rising red tape. That's what small business owners and households are telling me, right across my electorate of Monash.

It's exactly why this motion calls on the government to restore economic discipline, because, when this government's spending goes out of control, the consequences are felt and paid for by households and families right across my electorate and right across Australia. The Reserve Bank has pointed to the issue of inflation driving interest rate rises, and there is no relief in sight until this government gets its act together.