address to parliament - PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS - Cost of Living

It's a shame the member for Moreton has to leave because I would really like to know how many times he has actually crossed the floor. He mentioned the Liberals and the Nationals and their voting patterns and voting behaviour. I'll tell you the difference, Deputy Speaker Wilkie, the member for Clark, between the coalition parties and those Labor members opposite. It's that, if we feel passionate enough about a bill and we vote against it, we don't get expelled from our party. But those opposite, should they decide to cross the floor, will be punted from their party. I know. I've crossed the floor. I have actually had the courage of my convictions to vote against what was seen to be coalition policy. Whilst I was sent to Coventry for a while for doing so, I had the conviction—some might say 'temerity'—to do just that. But the members opposite don't vote against their party because they know that, if they do, it's an immediate expulsion. So don't ever accuse the Liberals and the Nationals of being sheeple when you are a Labor member at the dispatch box.

This is about cost of living, and we are in a cost-of-living crisis. But you wouldn't have known it last year. You wouldn't have known it from the talking points delivered by those opposite over and over again. They spoke plenty about the Voice. We haven't heard too much about that topic since it was roundly defeated by the people of Australia.

We have seen real wages collapse under those opposite. We have seen, indeed, real disposable income falling by 7½ per cent on a per capita basis. We have seen Australians paying 23 per cent more income tax. We have seen, across the board, prices increase by nearly 10 per cent. Interest payments on mortgages have almost tripled. Productivity is falling severely. This is not what Labor said it was going to do when it was elected in May 2022. When you see 2,000 people turning up to Wagga Beach, as they did on 6 December last year, to receive food, you know that something is crook in Tallarook. Tallarook's a long way from Wagga Wagga! But you know that things are not as they should be. Within an hour and a half, all eight tonnes of fresh and long-life food from this food bank had been distributed. That is unusual. We are seeing the Salvation Army and St Vinnies—and, God bless them, they do an amazing job—being overwhelmed. They're being overwhelmed by people who would normally not present themselves to one of those agencies. That is just so sad because it shouldn't be happening. Yet those opposite get their talking points and they just adhere to them. You see it over and over again.

We have had hundreds of households falling into electricity hardship every week since the Albanese government took over. We have youth unemployment now at 9.3 per cent. If you are a young person struggling to find a job, how on earth are you supposed to pay rent? How, if you are a young family, do you even get into the housing market? We saw only yesterday that we have 90,000 fewer tradies than we should. Who will build the houses? What, indeed, will they build the houses from when we have state Labor governments—and I refer specifically to Victoria's—wanting to shut down the timber industry? The construction industry is seeing failure after failure. It's not just in the homebuilding; it's in so much of the small-business sector, where businesses are doing it tough. They are shutting their doors because they just can't make ends meet.

I commend the member for Groom for bringing forward this important debate. I would urge and implore those opposite to look beyond the talking points and what the dirt unit of the Labor Party is giving you to present in parliamentary speeches. Talk and more importantly listen to your constituents and what they are saying, because there is a cost-of-living crisis, you are the government and you need to do something about it—and quickly.