Matters of Urgency — Economy

Helen Polley

The Senate will now consider the proposal, under standing order 75, from Senator Collins, which is also shown at item 13 of today's Order of Business:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need to expose the Albanese Government's increasingly desperate attempts to convince Australians they are better off, when real wages are falling, housing is becoming less affordable and, as Labor elder Bill Kelty has warned, Australians cannot pay their bills with the Treasurer's economic spin.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Jessica Collins

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need to expose the Albanese Government's increasingly desperate attempts to convince Australians they are better off, when real wages are falling, housing is becoming less affordable and, as Labor elder Bill Kelty has warned, Australians cannot pay their bills with the Treasurer's economic spin.

This is an urgent matter because we heard here, in question time yesterday, that the government continues to deceive the Australian people about the economy, and so I rise to expose the Albanese Labor government's increasingly desperate attempts to convince Australians they are better off, because they are not. I say to Australia that, if you feel poorer, that's because you are poorer. The Treasurer offers clever economic spin, but, as Labor luminary Bill Kelty warns, everyday Australians cannot pay their bills with the Treasurer's broken promises while real wages are falling and housing is becoming completely unaffordable. Everything costs more under Labor.

Look at Labor's trifecta of housing failure: fewer homes, higher rents and smashed market confidence. Property tax changes under Labor's budget will stunt construction and lower our national GDP by $1 billion. Let's look closer at the human impact. We now see reports that first home buyers under the five per cent deposit scheme now in negative equity has jumped fivefold in one single month. Young Australians were sold a dud policy and are now financially worse off because of Labor's economic gaslighting. That is why this motion is urgent. Australians need to understand what they are getting themselves into in Labor's bad policy, and, every day that passes, the Labor government pushes a narrative that is simply not true.

The Australian people need to hear this debate because the longer it continues, the more misinformation that is peddled. Here we are in the Senate to correct the record today. Let's return to housing. Under Labor, just 173,000 homes are built a year, falling roughly 335,000 short of its own 1.2 million home target. At the same time, builders are going broke. Nearly 13,000 construction businesses have suffered insolvency since Labor took office. That is 60 builders collapsing every single week. The coalition brought more homes every year than Labor, and we didn't need a defective $40 billion housing fund to do so.

Rents have soared 24.8 per cent under Labor, vastly outstripping wage growth of 16.1 per cent, with the median rent sitting at $670 a week. By Labor's own admission, its budget tax hikes mean higher rents and 35,000 fewer homes over the next decade. You simply cannot tax your way out of a housing shortage. Housing has never been less affordable. Mortgage affordability reached an all-time low in 2025-26.

Now, let's talk wage theft. Australians are going backwards, plain and simple. Labor's reckless spending is driving up inflation and everyday workers are paying the price. The latest ABS data exposes the reality: wages rose just 0.8 per cent in the June quarter, reaching 3.2 per cent annually. Headline inflation hit 3.8 per cent over the same period. That means a 0.6 per cent real pay cut for Australian workers. Your hard work is buying less than it did last year.

Instead of reining in out-of-control budget spending, the Albanese government refuses to tame the inflation beast. Labor's policy choices actively smash household budgets, leaving families poorer at the checkout, at the bowser and on their mortgages. Adding insult to injury, public sector wages grew at 3.4 per cent. Bureaucrats are pulling ahead while taxpayers foot the bill. At the same time, every pay rise Australians have had has been completely wiped out by Labor's homegrown inflation crisis. Real wages are back at the levels of 2011. The verdict is clear: Labor's economic failures are shrinking your pay cheque. Australians can't afford this government.

Here's the urgency. Here's our message: there is a better way. The coalition's plan to fix the economy and protect our way of life will cap migration to housing completions, invest $5 billion in infrastructure to unlock 400,000 homes, slash construction red tape by up to $70,000 per build and axe Labor's housing taxes. Better yet, our tax back guarantee will end wage theft by indexing income tax thresholds to inflation, delivering $250 in relief in year 1, scaling to $1,000 in year 4. Ending bracket creep is bold economic policy. We will deliver lower taxes, cheaper power, less migration and more homes to get Australia back on track.

Ellie Whiteaker

In response to this motion put by Senator Collins, I remind the chamber that when Labor came to government the wage share of national income was sitting at 49 per cent. Today, under our government, it is 54.3 per cent—the highest it has been in a decade. That's because our government is creating jobs and getting wages moving again.

When we came to office real wages were in freefall, and it has taken sensible and disciplined economic management to turn that around. Let's be clear about where that damage that we inherited on coming to government came from. Two-thirds of the fall in real wages since the 2001 peak happened on the coalition's watch, so it's always a little strange when those opposite walk into this place and claim that they're better economic managers. Frankly, the evidence just doesn't stack up.

We shouldn't sugarcoat things. These are tough times. Inflation is higher than any of us would like, and real wages have slipped in the most recent data. Globally, the pressure is on, and we know that it's tough for people out there, but, if we look at the bigger picture, wages have grown in eight of the last 11 quarters. Those opposite have shown, time and time again, that they don't believe in higher wages for Australians. In fact, when they were last in government, they had a deliberate policy of keeping wages down. That's no solution to the cost of living for Australian families.

Our government is focused on pulling every lever we can to help Aussie families while those opposite vote against our plan for higher wages and vote against our plan for tax cuts time and time again. It doesn't make any sense. When we back workers, when we back families, the Liberal Party stand in the way. It's as simple as that. Whenever we have stepped in to help Australians with the cost of living, those opposite have taken every opportunity to vote against it, to stand in the way of that work. Tax cuts, wage rises, our plan to build more homes, our tax changes for housing investors, cheaper medicines, bulk-billing, fully funding our public schools, better funding for public hospitals—the list goes on and on and on.

We're all familiar, I'm sure, with the line from Benjamin Franklin, 'In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except for death and taxes.' But what seems to be certain right now is that the Liberal Party will stand in the way of our work to help Australians with the cost of living. Labor has cut income taxes five times in five ways since coming to government. That's $3,000 a year back in the pockets of the average workers by 2028. I don't see how those opposite can call that economic spin. That is real money back in the pockets of Australians. We know people are doing it tough, and the first port of call is cutting taxes and lifting their wages.

Does anyone in this chamber remember the genius idea the Liberals took to the last election? No, I'm not talking about the $600 billion nuclear plan. No, I'm not talking about their attacks on working from home. I'm not even talking about their plan to gut the Public Service so that 41,000 Aussies would lose their jobs. I'm not even talking about their plan for higher taxes. I'm talking about their idea that the bosses should get taxpayer funded lunches. I think some people in this chamber had forgotten about that, but I tell you what, I haven't forgotten about that. Absolutely insane. That was their solution to the cost of living at the last election. It's almost laughable.

In contrast, Labor wants workers to earn more and keep more of what they earn. We will continue to do what we can to help Australians with the cost of living and to deliver real change.

Nick McKim

The neoliberal project so beloved of Labor and coalition governments over many decades has broken Australia's social contract. People used to be told that if they worked hard, if they got a good education, they could afford the basics that we all need to lead a good and dignified life. But we can't say that to young people anymore. Just ask any young person how things are going for them right now. Youth allowance is below the poverty line. Young people are working two or three jobs just to get through uni. They're paying tens of thousands of dollars for a degree their parents and just about everyone in government got for free, while they watch artificial intelligence smash their future career opportunities. If they do get a job, their wages are buying less and less and less over time. Meanwhile, it's almost impossible to buy a house unless you've got super wealthy parents, which leaves most young people living in rentals where the landlord can hike the rents just as often as they can get away with. And you've got climate change and international geopolitical instability looming large over all of that.

Labor has been in power for four years and things are getting worse, not better, for young Australians. Bill Kelty is absolutely right that the Treasurer's economic spin is insulting, and it's particularly insulting for young people. Honestly, Labor sometimes forget they're even in government. They need to make a choice—a choice to do something, a choice to make young people's lives better rather than just produce spin while young people watch their future turn to dust. Here are just five things that Labor could do today, right now, to improve the lives of young people here in Australia—make TAFE and uni genuinely free, freeze rents, put dental and mental health into Medicare, stop approving new coal and gas mines and stop supporting the genocide in Palestine. You can pay for what you need to pay for out of that list by making big corporations and the superwealthy one per cent pay their fair share of tax. Unlike Labor, the Greens will always be here for young Australians.

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