Cost of Living

Australian families do not believe the Prime Minister when he says that they’ll be better off under Labor again. Aussies are not mugs. They know they’ve been fooled once, but it won’t be twice. His promises that life will be easy have simply not come true. Ask yourself: are you better off now than you were under a coalition government, just three short years ago? No! Under Labor’s economic mismanagement, Australians are experiencing the longest sustained period of inflation since the 1980s when Indiana Jones was in the Temple of Doom.

We’re all feeling doom at the checkout. We’re feeling doom when we get our power bills that have risen by $1,000. We’re feeling doom that our living standards have collapsed by nine per cent. It’s the biggest fall in household disposable income in the developed world. Interest rates have increased 12 times, and 27,000 businesses have gone insolvent. Childcare costs are up by 22.3 per cent. If that’s not doom, I don’t know what is. It’s impacting the lives of Australians and putting pressure on families, especially young people. The Prime Minister is so out of touch with what’s happening in the lives of Australians. He should apologise for Labor’s economic damage. We need a stronger economy with low inflation and rising living standards, and that’s what we’re determined to deliver on this side of the chamber. We need a strong and decisive prime minister, not a weak and divisive one. We can’t afford another three years of Labor.