MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr KENNEDY (Cook) (15:55): If the member for Macnamara is so fond of tax cuts, I invite him to join us on our lifetime tax cut, because we're offering every single Australian a tax cut every year for the rest of their lives. That is the current coalition policy. Every single year for the rest of their lives, we want to give every Australian a tax cut.
Join us. Join us in a moment of bipartisanship. We would love to work with you to give every single Australian—because this government is currently the highest taxing government of all time.
Income tax as a percentage of GDP has never been higher, and people are getting crushed. Yesterday, on a very dark morning, Sunrise gave us some quotes. They said, 'We've got stark predictions for the Australian economy, with inflation and unemployment one of the worst in the developed world.' That's what Sunrise said yesterday.
What was Sunrise referring to on this dark morning? They were referring to the International Monetary Fund. The International Monetary Fund looks at 43 advanced economies.
They're basically every country in the world you'd want to live in: the US, Canada, developed Asia, South Korea, Japan, most of Europe, the big countries in South America. They benchmark those 43 countries. How does Australia compare to the 43 advanced economies in the world?
With interest rate rises this year, we are dead last. We're the only advanced economy in the world out of 43 advanced economies to have four interest rate rises this year. Of those 43 advanced economies, there's only one that's had three: Iceland.
There are a handful that have two, and most have had less than that. We are dead last in the amount of interest rate rises this year. If you listen to Treasurer Chalmers, he'll tell you it's the war on Iran.
Well, how do we compare to those 43 advanced economies before the war in Iran? Shockingly—surprise, surprise—we had the third highest inflation. Of all 43 advanced economies in the world, Australia was third last in that, doing comparatively better than the interest rate rises.
What's the International Monetary Fund predicting for our future? Surely, under Treasurer Chalmers, he's going to turn it around and it's going to be glowingly better. What we learned is that they're predicting that Australia will have the largest increase in unemployment in the developed world.
They're predicting that we will come dead last in unemployment as well next year. What are they predicting for inflation? Surely, he's going to get that under control.
Surely, we wouldn't be a global outlier in inflation as well. They're predicting we will be fifth out of the 43 advanced economies for our rate of inflation—fifth last in the world. Australia is literally a global outlier.
We are a global pariah in the advanced economic world. I invite the next speaker, whoever it is, to explain why it is that we have had the most interest rate rises in the advanced world. Why is it that we had the third highest inflation before Iran?
Why is it that we're having the largest increase in unemployment next year? Why is it that we'll be the fifth in the world for inflation next year? Why are we this global outlier after four years of this Labor government?
What has Australia got that others don't? We've got government spending at a 40-year high outside the pandemic. We have public demand growing twice as fast as the rest of the economy.
Australia is struggling, and it's sad to say. I had a small-business forum in Cook recently. A hundred small-business owners gathered in a room.
As one small-business owner put it: 'I'm getting smashed by everyone all at once. I can't get ahead against this Labor government and I can't catch a break.' Almost 70 per cent of Cook and 70 per cent of Australia is employed by small business. They are the lifeblood of this country.
Small business hires while large business fires. The only group that net adds more jobs than it takes away is small business. Large business fires more than it hires, and this small-business group is on its knees.
That was the message I got from the hundred small-business owners that were gathered in the room only two weeks ago. They are crying out for help. That's why we will hold this government to account.
We will fight for Australia to not be an economic pariah and for Australia to lead the world and not be a laggard.