ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT - MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE - COST OF LIVING

There's a scene in the movie Troy where Brad Pitt, playing Achilles, says to a young kid who asked him why he wanted to go and fight this huge giant, 'No one will remember your name.' We do remember Billy Hughes' name, and I can't believe the member for Fenner has disparaged a former Labor luminary. But I'm going to stand here and stick up for Billy Hughes, because Billy Hughes, known as 'the little digger', stood up not only for those who were in the army in World War I but also for Australians at the Treaty of Versailles and for ex-servicemen.

Dr Leigh interjecting—

Mr McCORMACK: To the member for Fenner, as much as I've got a lot of respect for you, you're probably like the kid in Troy: will they remember your name? They certainly remember Billy Hughes' name. And when you go on about the Liberal Party and having something that nobody wants to buy, I might recall the figures of the first preferences vote in the 2022 election and put them on the Hansard: ALP, 4,760,030; LNP, 5,233,334. First preference votes: ALP, 32.58 per cent; LNP 35.7 per cent. On both accounts—and we can make statistics what they are—they're pretty stark.

Dr Leigh interjecting—

Mr McCORMACK: I wouldn't go on too much, because your Achilles heel sits right over there. While you might talk about the teals and the Greens, it's the Greens who are going to take your seats, my friend. When you start doing dodgy deals and the Greens go out there and do press conferences about what they've achieved and the dirty deals that they've done—because what you're doing is sending all the emissions offshore, as the member for Fairfax quite correctly pointed out. I'd hate to be in the concrete industry, because it is going to be so much more expensive to get concrete, as, indeed, is farming.

The cost of living is just going through the roof, but while the member for Fenner was on his feet I didn't hear him talk about the bread-and-butter issues too much in his matter of public importance contribution. He didn't talk about those issues which are affecting Mr and Mrs Average. They're out there and they're wondering how they're going to pay for things. But don't take my word for it: the Salvation Army's Doorways program coordinator in Wagga Wagga, Jen Cameron, said:

… since January 2 this year, the number of people who have asked for help due to high financial expenses and inadequate income has increased by 25 per cent.

"People are saying they've never received help before, they've never asked for it."

She told the Daily Advertiser that comments from the people who they're trying to help are really concerning:

"Unless we see a dire change to the cost of living in the future, it's going to rise."

She talked about the 'phenomenal'—her word—amount of calls asking about payment assistance vouchers. She's worried that electricity prices rising by 20 per cent in July is going to have a very harmful effect on those people whom the member for Fenner and his cohorts opposite should be talking about and doing something for every day of the week.

Instead of coming in here and disparaging Billy Hughes, instead of coming in here and disparaging the modern Liberal Party, instead of coming in here and quoting Robert Menzies—perhaps out of tune or out of context—he should be looking after the forgotten people. And the forgotten people are those people outside this area, who probably aren't even listening to this debate—why would they? They are getting on with the job of picking their kids up from school, kids they probably now won't be able to take to sport or dancing or those sorts of things because they can't afford to. They're probably going to the grocery shops, but they're not going to have as big a hamper—they're not going to have as much at the checkout because they can't afford to. They're not going to have that meal out. They're going to be worried about how they're going to pay for their electricity prices. They're worried about how they're going to pay for their mortgages, which were once this high and now are this high. It's going to be so difficult—those rising mortgage interest rates, that rising amount of money that they have to find to pay for it and for everyday ordinary items that they shouldn't have to worry about.

The excuses can't keep coming. Labor, you've been in government 10 years—sorry, 10 months; God help us if they are in government 10 years! They've been in government for 10 months. The time for excuses and the blame game is over. Do your job. Do the job that you were elected to do—by not that many Australians. Make sure that the cost of living comes down.