Mr HAMILTON (Groom) (11:57): The national accounts figures for the March quarter, released yesterday, show GDP lifted by only 0.1 per cent across the first three months of the year. This is the slowest rate of growth in 30-odd years, outside the COVID era. On a per capita basis, growth fell by 0.4 per cent. We are in a per capita recession, and this was the fifth consecutive quarterly decline. What that means for the average Australian is that things are getting worse and they’re going backwards.
The only thing keeping that growth figure in the positive—only just—is the unprecedented level of immigration that this government is bringing to the country. To be very clear, this government is using immigration to stave off a recession. The problem is that the explosion in immigration numbers does not come without a further cost. Whilst immigration keeps this government out of recession, it’s keeping existing Australians out of the housing market. Our housing crisis is being made worse day by day as this government’s high-immigration strategy plays out.
Of course, this situation isn’t hurting all Australians equally. We are all hurting, but there are key demographics bearing an unfair share of the weight. There are two, in particular, that we often talk about. The first is 21- to 29-year-olds, who are the only demographic to have seen both their discretionary and their non-discretionary spending go backwards. These are Australians who are in the early stages of their careers, on lower wages, and who are probably experiencing the upward pressure on rental costs and definitely experiencing inflationary pressures on almost everything else. They have little capacity to save a deposit for a house. Even if they are lent that money from the bank of mum and dad, there is very little capacity to service a loan. With inflation staying higher for longer because of Labor’s high spending and house prices continuing to shoot up because of Labor’s immigration policies, their hopes of homeownership are floating away. To rub salt into their wounds, Labor’s housing policy is yet to build a single house, and, as was extensively covered in yesterday’s media, Labor is unlikely to build one before the end of this term of government. As the Treasurer acknowledged, his policies have failed young Australians. The second group are renting pensioners. With fixed incomes and the price of everything going up and up, their quality of life in what should be their golden years is going backwards. Does the Treasurer acknowledge, too, that his policies have failed older Australians?
Whilst Labor’s third budget was a typical high-taxing, high-spending Labor budget, the solution to this government’s problems can actually be found in the Labor playbook, because the last government to reduce spending as a percentage of GDP for three consecutive years was the Hawke and Keating government in the late 1980s. If this government had the courage to embark on an exercise in spending reduction, as its forebears did, I believe it would receive not only bipartisan support but also the support of the Australian people. Australians can see that Labor’s policies are disproportionately hurting vulnerable people; Australians can see that Labor’s policies are working against the RBA and causing inflation to stay higher for longer; and Australians can see that Labor’s policies are driving up demand in the housing market, squeezing young homebuyers out.
Since coming to government, Labor has increased spending by $315 billion. That equates to roughly $30,000 per Australian household, yet the typical family with a mortgage is now more than $35,000 worse off since Labor took office. There can be no claim that Labor’s spending is making things better. The RBA governor confirmed yesterday that the narrow path Australia must walk to get inflation back within that target band of two to three per cent is now stretched out even longer. Our hopes of an interest rate cut in the next 12 months have all but disappeared, as the 52-week bond market is now clearly pricing in no reduction in interest rates during that period. The governor herself still holds out the possibility of a rate rise in that period. Australia’s future is gloomier because of Labor’s policies. In just the past year, domestic inflation has been five per cent, while imported inflation has been one per cent. Our inflation problem is now homegrown. It is not being driven by foreign wars or foreign politics. Our inflation is being driven by the government’s policies. Put simply: Labor has the wrong priorities.
Can the Treasurer explain how spending $620,000 on a speechwriter makes life better for a pensioner struggling to pay their rent? Can the Treasurer explain how spending $1 billion for a foreign company to deliver a quantum computer will help Australians through this cost-of-living crisis? Can the Treasurer explain how increasing public servant numbers by 10 per cent in just one year aligns in any way with his repeated claims of spending restraint? As covered by Phil Coorey in the AFR, Labor’s third budget banks in a decade of deficits. How can the Treasurer possibly celebrate a surplus that comes at the cost of 10 years of deficit? We often look at the Costello years, with 10 years of surpluses in a row. We have the opposite laid out in front of us because of this budget.
Inflation hurts all of us, but it spreads its pain unfairly across our community. What I’m laying out is the moral case for reducing spending. If we continue to drive inflation, vulnerable demographics in our community will bear an unfair amount of the load that inflation’s putting on all of us. Responsible, sensible reduction in spending can alleviate that problem and make for a better Australia.
