Michael Sukkar MP

Matters of Public Importance – Cost of Living

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more smug and self-satisfied performance from a prime minister when Australians are doing it hard, and on a day when things have just got harder for Australians. This Prime Minister stood there at question time with a smug look on his face, telling Australians, essentially, that they’ve never had it better. I will say to the Prime Minister: he has to deliver on some of the commitments he made before the election, when he promised Australians that he would reduce cost-of-living pressures, reduce mortgages and reduce energy prices. Rather, what we see from the Prime Minister now is a refusal to repeat any of those promises. We saw today mortgage interest rates rise again, and the Treasurer is very, very keen to make sure, whenever he utters the words ‘Reserve Bank,’ he prefaces it with ‘independent’—the independent Reserve Bank. That doesn’t stop members opposite from offering free advice to the Reserve Bank in media interviews left, right and centre, but what he refuses to repeat is that the Reserve Bank’s hand is being forced by a government that is putting inflationary upward pressure into the economy.

We all recall, before the election, the Labor Party speaking about wages and how real wages had been going down. What do we think is happening now with real wages? In the quarter to December, we saw inflation for the quarter at 1.9 per cent and yet wages at one per cent. What does that mean? That means that every single person’s pay packet is going backwards, in real terms, under this government. We heard in question time today that the last time mortgage interest rates were this high was in 2012. We now see mortgage interest rates today—well, the cash rate—at 3.35 per cent. Were the Prime Minister here, I would say that a few times to him—3.35 per cent, 3.35 per cent—just so he could bone up on that, just so he could get that number in his head, which he was clearly unable to do in the middle of the election. But what is the common denominator between the mortgage interest rates we saw in 2012 and the mortgage interest rates we see today? Of course, it’s the tough luck of the Labor Party, who just stumble upon this terrible luck every time they’re in government and the economy suffers. It’s just terrible luck. But the other thing in common was that, in 2012, guess who the chief of staff to the great Wayne Swan was? It was the member for Rankin. Over the years, I’ve often referred to the member for Rankin as Wayne Swan’s brain. He always took it as a compliment, but I didn’t mean it as a compliment. But he is the man now who is putting upward pressure—inflationary pressure—into the economy. This is forcing the hand of the Reserve Bank.

What are we going to see? We know we’re going to see approximately 800,000 households who will not just see one interest rate rise; they’re not sitting there today doing the sums, doing the maths on what a 0.25 per cent rise will do. There will be 800,000 households who will see a jump from their fixed rates, in many cases below two per cent interest rates, to the now prevailing headline interest rates of around six or 6½ per cent, if not higher. So these people will not, sadly, being seeing one interest rate rise overnight; when their mortgages mature—and 800,000 of them will mature this year—they will see every single one of the nine interest rate rises to date increase their mortgage overnight.

What’s the answer from the government? What’s the answer from the Prime Minister? Well, the Prime Minister keeps talking about the reconvening of the parliament before Christmas on his gas plan. What have we seen since then? The Prime Minister talks about that being a great achievement. I received a letter into my electorate office just today, so apologies that I’m reading it from my phone. This letter had some even worse news for this person. Not only are they looking at how they are going to meet increased mortgage rates; it was a letter from Origin Energy. The letter says: ‘Hello, on 1 February your natural gas rates are going up. We understand this isn’t the news you want to hear, and we’re here to help you if you need. We estimate the new rates would cost you $602.74 more, based on an estimate of your last 12 months of use.’

The Prime Minister, 97 times before the election, promised to deliver $275 reductions to people just like that constituent. Yet, since the election, how many times has he mentioned the word 275, let alone the promise? I put the task out to all those in the chamber: do a search of Hansard. How many times has the Prime Minister reiterated the promise that he made 97 times before the election that he would deliver $275 reductions in energy prices? He’s mentioned it zero times. He refuses to mention it again.

He obviously thinks that the Australian people will just ignore this or pretend that he didn’t make those promises 97 times. He’s fumbled around a couple of times with some fairly flimsy alibis. One alibi that he seems to be throwing out there in order to alleviate his responsibility for those promises was the illegal Russian invasion of the Ukraine. But he forgot that he’d actually made the promise about 30 times after the invasion. I assume those on the other side will be scrambling around to try to work out what the next alibi could be for that promise, but what we know is that the government has no plan to deliver on that promise. They have no plan to put downward pressure—downward inflationary pressures—into the economy to take pressure off the sad decisions that are being made at the moment to increase the cash rate.

So what happens? Millions of Australians will suffer. And what do we get from those in the government? It’s just the bad luck of the Labor Party. Every time we come to government, things happen. Can I say to those in the government: you are elected to do a job, and when difficult times come, governments are there to make decisions to make the lives of Australians easier. I can say that, as I was a minister in the former government when the pandemic hit. Rather than run around this building saying, ‘Woe is me. The pandemic is making life harder for Australians. Isn’t that bad luck for us?’ we took decisions to make Australians’ lives better through a very difficult time. In my portfolios in that government, we saved half a million jobs in the residential construction industry. We didn’t say, ‘Woe is me. Isn’t it all just very bad news and tough luck for the government.’ No. You make decisions to make life easier.

What we’re seeing here is a prime minister, to be frank, who I think has the worst economic credentials of any prime minister that we’ve ever seen, and there have been a few doozies on the Labor side over the years, I have to say. This is a man who didn’t know the cash rate on the first day of the election campaign. He didn’t know the cash rate on the first day of the election campaign! Again, I know that those opposite don’t want to remember that, but he did not know a fundamental figure that most people walking down the street would know and certainly that anybody with a mortgage would know.

I think that also betrays another aspect to this very smug and self-satisfied Prime Minister. Look at the dinner parties that he attends and the celebrities he hangs out with, including those who accompanied him to the tennis three nights in a row. On that point, all prime ministers attend the tennis, but three nights in a row? He looked very relaxed. He did not look like a man who was sitting there trying to work out a plan to help alleviate the cost-of-living pressures hitting Australians.

On this side of the House, we’ll stand up for those people. They are who we represent, they are who we will support and that is what the government must do.