Senator BROCKMAN (Western Australia) (17:03): Senator Sterle, you really belled the cat there. You are one of my favourite senators on the other side but you really belled the cat there when you said, 'I will start telling the truth.' That's all we are asking for, Senator Sterle; we are just asking the government to start telling the truth. It would be really nice. I'm not going to focus on the litany of broken promises we have seen from the Albanese government in its first year and a bit. I will just focus on a couple because they are the ones I think are most important. They are the mistruths we hear repeated in this place day after day, question time after question time, speech after speech, from those opposite. The one that is most egregious because it's just completely denied by reality is about wage rises. Real wages increased under the former coalition government; real wages went up. The Labor government, coming into office from opposition, promised they would see real wage rises and, instead, they have overseen the greatest declines in real wage rises, certainly in my lifetime and probably longer than that. Real wages plummeted thanks to the inflation and cost-of-living crisis that has impacted Australia over the last 12 months. Everybody out there knows that. They know that, whilst their pay packet may have been going up, it has not been going up fast enough to combat the inflation rises that have been forced on them and exacerbated by the poor handling of the economy by this Labor government. That is the first one. It's a clear broken promise of this Labor government. They promised real wage rises. They have delivered real wage declines, and they know it. They know it. Senator Ayres: It's just not true. Senator BROCKMAN: Real wages rose under the previous coalition government except for the fact that something happened during that period, Senator Ayres—this thing called a global pandemic. Real wages rose. Senator Ayres interjecting— Senator BROCKMAN: I will table the document. I don't have it with me right now, Senator Ayres, but I'll make sure I get a copy sent to your office. The other one that is really important to talk about because the myth is told in this place again and again by those opposite—they constantly attack us for not supporting their gas plan. We voted against it. Yes, I'm proud. I say it every day: I'm very happy to be on the record as having voted against your gas and energy price plan because it was a terrible plan. It was a terrible plan that deterred investment in the Australian economy. It would have done almost nothing in terms of power prices in the short term. And it would have forced up power prices in the long term by reducing investment in the production of supply. The only way of putting long-term downward pressure on gas prices is to see new generation enter the marketplace. Instead of doing that, you have deterred foreign investment into the gas market. You've caused one of our largest trading partners, our most significant geopolitical ally, Japan, to look to other nations for their gas supply because they do not trust us any more. They have said this publicly. They no longer trust Australia to be a regular supplier of their gas needs, even though they and their corporations have invested billions of dollars over decades, particularly into my home state of Western Australia. Your gas and energy policy is built on the back of the $275 power cut promise, which just disappeared. It didn't see the light of day after you were elected. That was a number that you could not speak its name: $275 could not come out of the mouth of any minister in this place for months and months. As I say, it's Thursday afternoon, so I'm not going to go to all of these broken promises. But, in the words of Senator Sterle, it would just be nice if the Labor government started to tell the truth.