Senator BROCKMAN (Western Australia) (15:14): Senator Grogan, I can't help you with a collective noun for South Australians. I can think of a few for Labor governments, but I can't mention them in this place. This was a very telling question time. We saw a complete failure once again from this government to take seriously what Senator Fawcett did so clearly enunciate as the issue—the only issue that we hear about day in and day out—which is the cost-of-living crisis. What did we see from those opposite in terms of their own questions—their Dorothy Dixers? We saw them talk about a 'Future Made in Australia', a slogan with absolutely nothing behind it. We saw them talk about the Olympics. It reminds you a bit of bread and circuses, doesn't it? Bread and circuses—that's what this government does. It doesn't do actual policy. It doesn't do any of the heavy lifting required in the economy to take pressure off struggling Australian families. It does bread and circuses. When asked about the cost of living, they rolled out the same trite answer they have been rolling out for, I think, over a year now. If we went back to question time a year ago, we'd hear about cheaper child care and lower costs of medicines. The Australian people don't buy it. They don't buy that this government has done a thing to try to improve their standard of living, to try and take the pressure off them in this cost-of-living crisis, because you know what? With a few hundred dollars in terms of energy bill relief, people's energy bills have gone up by thousands of dollars—thousands of dollars. I have talked to individual small businesses whose energy bills have gone up by $10,000 a quarter. Senator O'Neill: How much help did you give them? How much are you going to give them? Senator BROCKMAN: Senator O'Neill, how much do you think—through you, Mr Deputy President—your assistance helped a small business whose energy bills have gone up $10,000 in a quarter or a family whose mortgage repayments have gone up since you came to power, Senator O'Neill, by $15,000 a year? Their price of groceries has gone up 12 per cent. Their price of electricity has gone up 22 per cent. We have gone, in my home state of Western Australia, under a state Labor government and a federal Labor government, from having the cheapest electricity pretty much in the world or one of the cheapest electricity prices in the world to one of the most expensive. Extraordinary. As Senator Fawcett so eloquently outlined, the cost of electricity in South Australia has gone up extraordinarily, even though, according to those opposite, under their policy of renewables only, they should have the cheapest electricity in the world. Guess what? It's not. And people are understanding this. The Australian people aren't mugs. They aren't stupid. The Australian people aren't being bought off by the bread-and-circuses act from this government. They know real economic management is about making sure you do everything you can to put downward pressure on interest rates. Inflation, inflation—downward pressure on inflation. Inflation and interest rates are economy destroyers. They are standard-of-living destroyers. That is why under this government, contrary to their rhetoric on wages, we've actually seen real wages falling—under this government—as the cost of living and the prices of groceries, of petrol, of electricity and of mortgage repayments skyrocket. And every Australian family knows that. Every Australian small business knows that. We've got record business closures. We've got record numbers of businesses going into administration. We've got a record number of small businesses whose owners cannot take money out of the business. They're still paying their staff, but they cannot take money out of the business because of the economic management of this Labor government, because of the burden of interest rate rises on their business and the destructive and corrosive effects of inflation.