Senator HUGHES (New South Wales) (17:06): I know it's the end of the week, and it has been a long one—it really has—and I know we're here for three out of four weeks this month. But clearly those opposite haven't quite adjusted to the fact that they're actually in government now; it's actually their responsibility. They are looking at every opportunity they can. I notice Senator Polley's here suggesting that the coalition government had calm economic waters and that Labor are now experiencing stormy economic waters. Maybe TikTok was down when the COVID pandemic was happening, but there was a global pandemic that affected economies around the world, including Australia—an unprecedented pandemic, a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. Absolute uncertainty was thrown at the Australian people and those around the world during the COVID pandemic. We saw Victorians locked up for global record times, we saw lockdowns across the country and we saw borders between nations and within Australia closed. Yet Senator Polley seems to think they were calm economic waters. I mean, the fantasy land that these people must be living in is breathtaking. But when we're talking about pressures on the Australian electorate—the cost-of-living pressures facing Australian families—they're happening now, and they're happening without a plan from this government to address them at all. I just listened to Senator O'Neill's diatribe on what she alleges the coalition did in government—which is, again, hilarious in its absolute misrepresentations, in its biased view. It's extraordinary how you can actually stand up there and say these things. You must just have zero shame to be able to do that. The reality is that no amount of posturing, no amount of 'But it's hard!' and no amount of 'There are global factors at play now' is going to help one Australian to pay their mortgage or pay their power bills. Not one bit of whingeing, whining, looking back or pointing the finger is going to make the bottom line in a family budget look any healthier. The difference is that the Australian electorate were promised 97 times before the election that they were going to see a reduction of $275 in their power bills—$275, the number that shall not speak its name if you are a member of the ALP. Ninety-seven times Mr Albanese promised that Australians' power bills would be coming down. And what have they got to show for it? Increasing power bills and the fact that we've now seen, after all their bluff and bluster, everything they were carrying on about, bringing back the parliament at a huge expense to the Australian taxpayer. There's been no cost-of-living relief, no energy price relief, but we're told today by the energy companies that we're about to see prices increase by 20 per cent. I hope that for some of these elderly Australians that everyone seems to be so concerned about when they talk about the nurses in aged-care homes—oh, hang on: that's not actually going to happen anymore, sorry. Maybe they don't care that much. I hope it's not a cold winter, because cold winters, when Australians and particularly older Australians can't afford to heat their houses, have dire consequences—absolutely dire consequences. But what we're getting from the Labor government is complete inaction—no plan. If it wasn't so serious, it would be funny. Listening to those opposite, they have no details about anything. They talk about their broken plans when it comes to superannuation, that it's a 'modest change'—clearly that was the phrase most used in the focus group. But we've now had an admission from Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones today that there will be unintended consequences to these superannuation changes, and that they will now undertake a lengthy consultation processes. Here's a tip, guys: when you're putting together policy, it is usually good to undertake some of that consultation process before you announce it and before you go out there and absolutely frighten Australians, particularly our farmers, and particularly when you're going to tax an unrealised asset, when you're going to potentially force people to sell the investments that they have worked so hard to build up, because on paper they're over a particular price threshold—and one that you're not planning to index. We will see increases to property prices and increases to land values over the years ahead. That does tend to happen. Think about how much a house cost 20 years ago versus today. We're talking about changes to superannuation. Superannuation is when people retire. There will be people starting their working lives now and they won't be accessing it for 40-plus years. With no indexation, how many people do you think will be impacted then? This is nothing but a blatant grab by the industry super funds to try and smash self-managed super funds. We know what your agenda is. Your agenda is to do anything you can to support your Labor mates. We know that the Labor mates in the unions pulled the strings. I welcome, in many regards, the national corruption commission being set up, because I think we may start to get to the bottom of some very interesting deals that have been done, and why every policy this government has managed to put forward is one that boosts union involvement, that gives a bit of a pat on the back to the union mates: 'Don't worry, guys, we've got you. We'll change industrial relations. We'll make sure we get bargaining across industries to make sure life becomes better for you.' It's absolutely disgraceful. It is time to remember that you are the government and that everything you do has an impact on everyday Australians and how they're going to pay their bills for their families. It's about time you man up, grow up, woman up—whatever you want to call it. I don't know what we're all allowed to be nowadays. We're too busy worrying about— An honourable member interjecting— Senator HUGHES: Yes, the Prime Minister is certainly too busy worrying about the Voice and crossing the Harbour Bridge at a pride event. He's not doing any work on how he's going to make Australians' lives easier. Before the election, Mr Albanese told us we would have cheaper mortgages. I can absolutely tell you that since May last year my mortgage is definitely not cheaper. In fact, I've had nothing but mortgage rate increases since then. It is definitely not cheaper. We did say it wouldn't be easy under Albanese, and it's certainly getting harder for retirees. I don't know why you don't like retirees. I know you don't like self-managed ones, because they actually manage to work for themselves, to contribute to the Australian economy, and to provide most of the jobs that everyday Australians have, which are in small business. They are the backbone of our economy. But, because they're not in a super fund with you're union buddies, you're going to do anything you can to undermine them and destroy their retirements. Do you remember that we were going to have no franking credits? We weren't talking about that. We weren't changing that. That was something that the member for McMahon floated in the last election. The member for Maribyrnong, who holds dear ambitions to be the Prime Minister, may still do so. He may have to compete with my local member, the member for Sydney, for that one. But remember that we're not touching franking credits. Minister Bowen told the electorate, 'If you don't like the policy, don't vote for us.' So they didn't. So what did you do this time? You just didn't tell them. You just lied. You said: 'We're not going to touch franking credits. There will be no changes to super.' It wasn't that you said there will be 'modest changes' to super; you said there will be 'no changes' to super. Remember that there would be no industry-wide bargaining? 'It's not part of our policy.' That was another lie. You said, 'We're going to do our bit to assist with real wage increases.' What have we seen since you've come to government? Wages have in fact fallen at faster rates. Remember the promise, 'We're going to cut the cost of consultants and contractors'? That one didn't happen, because they realised there are a few former chiefs of staff who now work with big advisory and consulting firms, so they all had to be looked after. These are all broken promises. You've been in for nine months, and you've managed to break almost every promise you made. Not only are your broken promises eroding the trust of the Australian electorate in democracy and political processes, but they reflect badly on everybody when you blatantly lie in this manner. The impacts of your decisions, the impacts of what you were doing, make a bad situation worse for every single family. If I hear once more that the Labor government is talking about boosting manufacturing, I can tell you that you talk out of both sides of your mouth. You want to boost manufacturing, but you also want a safeguard mechanism that will impact industries that will find it the hardest to abate. It would require some intellectual depth and some policy know-how to look at a broad range of industries and go: 'You know what? I saw a pharmaceutical company this week, and they have made great strides in getting to net zero. They're actually going to be ahead of it.' But the pharmaceutical industry is one of the easier industries for abatement, unlike the cement industry. They going to kill off Australian jobs, they going to kill off Australian manufacturing because, if you look around this place, you'll see that it's pretty full of cement. Cement is in everything we do, but the one company that might actually survive is the one that now sends its limestone over to China, so that company has all the extra emissions from transporting the limestone to China. They make the clinker in China, the most intensive emissions part of the cement process, because it's less regulated and less controlled and there is less oversight in China. They then put the clinker on a ship and bring it back to Australia, again adding to the emissions. But because those opposite have no understanding of transference of emissions, they seem to think this is an Australia-only problem, that somehow Australia can fix the global emissions problem, global warming, climate change. They can fix all of these things by regulating our own activities and are willingness to cut off our nose to spite our face, tie one arm behind our back, kill our economy. But they do not understand emissions transference in what's happening. The fact is that these emissions are being created in China—and probably additional emissions from the transport—and companies are not going to meet the threshold in the safeguard mechanism because their emissions are happening overseas. If the Greens are serious about this, they should start having a look at transparency because this is what companies are going to do. They're going to start sending jobs overseas, and they're going to go to countries that don't have the same regulations that we do. That means that not only are you going to have the increase in transport costs, but you're also going to have emissions being created in much less technologically advanced ways. Again, this would require some understanding of policy development and intellectual depth. No-one in the department could answer a question about a sea ban—no-one. The safeguard mechanism is designed with an arbitrary number—if you're at 99, you're exempt; if you're at 101, you're in. It is an arbitrary number for those companies that will find it the hardest to abate their emissions. That will destroy industries, destroy jobs, destroy families, destroy the regions. Maybe that's what you're going for, Chris. The way you're going with your renewable energy targets and everything around them, we're not going to have the energy and the power resources to keep anything going. Rolling blackouts will become the new norm in Australia. It's an absolute disgrace that somehow you are focused on taking this country so far backwards by destroying industries. We are a resource-rich nation, and there is no excuse for this. We should be leading the way, but, no, those opposite cannot get out of their own way. Maybe they're a bit psychologically bruised from the 2019 campaign, so that they're rocking in the corner—I don't know. Pick yourselves up, guys, and realise that the decisions you make impact Australian families, and you shouldn't be breaking the promises you made to them before the election. If they're all so great, all so excellent and they're not coming into place until after the next election, take them to the next election. Put them in the budget papers, show us what the costs are going to be, explain in detail whether or not an unrealised asset will have to be sold because the tax bill's so high. Take them to an election, take them to the Australian electorate and say: 'Hey, we said no changes to franking credits, we said no changes to superannuation, but we're talking about modest ones now. On those franking credits, you can't pay a dividend if you're raising capital.' Explain them to the Australian people, take them to the next election. But you know what's going to happen because they're bad policies making bad situations for families, and you're attacking some of the people that have contributed the most to building up this country. You're destroying families and their dreams for a better future.