PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Dr SCAMPS (Mackellar) (19:04): Families across my electorate of Mackellar are hurting. The cost-of-living crisis is stretching household budgets far beyond their limits, and this has gone on for way too long. Hardworking Australians are trying to keep their heads above water as they are hit from all angles.
Whether it's buying groceries, filling up at the bowser, renewing insurance or paying a mortgage, households are facing increasing costs that are putting them under enormous pressure. With Australia's annual inflation reaching the highest rate in almost three years in March, with fuel, housing and food costs continuing to rise, Hiten from Frenchs Forest told me that his household, like many others on the Northern Beaches, is struggling.
To combat inflation, the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates again last month—the fourth increase in the cash rate this year. It now stands at 4.6 per cent, the highest since 2011. Even before the latest increase, the average interest rate on outstanding owner-occupier housing loans reached 6.21 per cent in July.
For families with mortgages, this means more pain and more decisions—decisions like whether to pull kids out-of-after-school sport or to skip or lower a level of insurance, postpone seeing the doctor or perhaps even sell the house. Catherine from Belrose told me she's working two jobs taking care of elderly patients and facing imminent housing and food security issues.
She rightly points out that she is not alone. Many working- and middle-class families are struggling with rising interest rates, increasing living costs and the real risk of losing their homes. The latest ABS figures illustrate why our communities are drowning.
Inflation climbed back to four per cent in August. Underlying inflation remains at 3.6 per cent. Food is three per cent more expensive than a year ago.
Transport costs are up 5.6 per cent. Housing costs are up 5.7 per cent, and insurance is up 3.5 per cent. The prices of everyday essentials have also increased, with milk up 8.9 per cent, fruit up 6.9 per cent and coffee and tea up more than five per cent over the year.
Add to that increases in rent, child care, water, health care, electricity and education. It's not only households that are hurting. Businesses in my electorate are just hanging on.
They are angry and frustrated at the lack of support. Natalie, who runs an allied health practice on the Northern Beaches with her husband, wrote to me recently. She echoed what many small-business owners have told me—that running a small business right now is harder than it has ever been.
Wages, rent, insurance, energy and compliance costs have all gone up, while their patients are more careful with every dollar they spend. Natalie said they cannot simply pass every cost increase onto the people they look after. Every month, they make careful decisions to keep their doors open, their staff employed and their patients cared for.
This is the story for so many small businesses around Australia. This year's annual Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Small Business Conditions Survey found that 63 per cent of small businesses cited increased costs as their biggest challenge, and the ACCI CEO, Andrew McKellar, put it plainly: Australia's small businesses are right on the brink. They are stretched, and they have extremely limited capacity to absorb additional costs.
From talking to businesses all around my own electorate of Mackellar, I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. Constituents and small-business owners in my electorate are asking, rightly so, 'When will there be relief?' However, with the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, inflationary pressures are not likely to ease any time in the near future, but, right now, Australians need tangible everyday relief, including more affordable child care, health care, education, housing and support for Australian businesses.
There is one really clear action the government could take right now so that they could invest in such services, and that is to ensure that Australians get a fair return for the export sale of our gas by introducing a 25 per cent tax on gas exports. Research from the Australia Institute estimates that a 25 per cent gas export tax could raise $17 billion annually.
Norway established a sovereign wealth fund in 1990 to invest revenue from its oil and gas resources for the benefit of its own population—for the Norwegians. It's now worth $3 trillion. It's time Australians reap that same benefit from the sale of our own resources.
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