Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (25/03/25 16:02): After three long, hard years for Australians, relief is soon at hand with the federal election in the wind. Regardless of what you'll hear tonight, the facts don't lie about the very real struggle Australians have under the Albanese government. We warned at the last election, 'It won't be easy under Albanese,' and it has proved to be far worse. In fact, Australians simply cannot escape. The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that gas prices are up 32 per cent; rents are up 17 per cent; bread is up over 20 per cent; cheese is up 18 per cent; milk is up 17 per cent; and breakfast cereal is up 15 per cent—it's enough to make you choke on your Weet-Bix. It's no joking matter, however, with insurance also up 32 per cent. My constituents in Mallee are hopping mad about it, and they are very happy that the Leader of the Opposition has put insurers on notice to ensure insurance is affordable and accessible for Australian families and small businesses. I will be bringing Andrew Hall from the Insurance Council to Halls Gap next week to meet with constituents—business owners who've been unable to access or afford fire insurance, even though Halls Gap itself has never been burnt in a bushfire in all its history. The Leader of the Opposition, at my invitation, came to Halls Gap to talk about insurance, in contrast with the Prime Minister and Premier, who flew over the town in its time of need. Australia's cost-of-living crisis has been running for three years. The Nationals have been urging for action at the supermarket checkout to assist struggling Australian shoppers and farmers, but this government has yet again been slow to act. Grocery prices have gone up 24 per cent, compared to all other goods and services at 22 per cent. Critically, by early 2023, grocery prices were increasing at twice the rate of wage growth. The coalition has been proposing tough action on supermarkets that abuse their market power, including tough new penalties, such as a $2 million on-the-spot fine, 10 times more than Labor have pledged, and increased powers for the ACCC to conduct random audits of major supermarkets. We will create a supermarket commissioner as a confidential link between farmers and suppliers so there can be no fear of retribution, which they currently face, for speaking out about unfair prices. Of course, we in the Nationals are committed to divestiture powers as a last resort to put an end to price gouging. That's what real action on cost of living looks like.

The Albanese Labor government pretends it never said 97 times before the last election that power prices would permanently come down by $275. They've put forward in tonight's budget two $75 relief payments for two quarters, a bandaid for a gaping wound. But voters are smarter than that. They know their power prices have actually gone up $1,300.

The list of pain for Australians, particularly regional Australians, after three long years of Labor goes on. In the coalition's time in office we secured 43 mobile black spot investments in Mallee, in places like Kalkee, Laharum, Minyip and Toolondo. But Labor has not funded one mobile tower in its three years. Mallee residents have had to pay for alternatives or have lost productivity due to poor mobile coverage. Productivity is also evaporating in Mallee farms in the north as Labor wastes taxpayer money buying more water from our food-producing irrigators just to send it down the river, driving up the cost of water and ultimately the cost of food at the supermarket. Fruit prices have already risen 12 per cent under Labor. Where will they go with less water to grow it with in another three years of an Albanese government?

Spending in my electorate after three years of hard Labor has fallen by 95 per cent, one-20th of what I secured in my first term in office. Everywhere you look, Labor is robbing regions to buy votes in the inner cities, pretending Australians will fall for their tricky budgeting to get over the line this election. Only a coalition government will get Australia back on track.

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