Mr HAMILTON (Groom) (15:50): Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I'll endeavour to do my best in refraining from using the word 'you' inappropriately. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you. Mr HAMILTON: What an important MPI for us to be talking on: the Albanese government's utter failure to address rising cost-of-living pressures facing Australians. We had the minister talking about what happened in the first week of this government, talking it up. The minister missed, of course, one important thing that happened in that first week, which was the government's complete backflip, complete walking away, from their commitment to reduce your energy costs by $275. This was a key component of the campaign. It sat right beside their 43 per cent emissions reduction policy. This was what provided balance to that argument. It was presented as a bit of a red herring, to try to show that there was some balance, some reasonable behaviour, being exhibited. But what we saw in that first week was immediately—bang—walking away from that commitment to reduce your energy bills by $275. Today we saw the Prime Minister, on being asked three or four questions on this issue, refusing to answer them, and this has been all the way through. Every time we've raised this—'Do you maintain your commitment to reduce energy bills by $275?'—the government has said nothing on it. It's refused to answer this. It has walked away from it completely. This is what happened in the first week of this government. We saw exactly the intent of the government. They're not going to focus on cost-of-living pressures. They have far different things to focus on. I think I also heard the previous speaker talk about a trillion dollars of debt that they had inherited as just some victims of this. Let's be very, very clear: it's every dollar of which you agreed to, and you suggested that we spend more. You are now in government. You are no longer in opposition, you are in government. You are responsible. What has caused these cost-of-living pressures is not some historical incident. These are things happening now, and you are the government; this is on your watch. What you do now matters. Giving us the same speeches from opposition that you gave before, pointing out to us on this—it's your responsibility. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Excuse me. The member for Lalor on a point of order? Ms Ryan: The point of order is the one we've been talking about all afternoon. The member for Groom is referencing the Deputy Speaker again and again in his speech. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It did creep in towards the end. So you might just pay a bit closer attention. This is an important standing order for this afternoon, it would appear. Mr HAMILTON: Madame Deputy Speaker, I tried so hard. I will double my endeavours. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: You gave it a good shot; you need to do better. Mr HAMILTON: Madam Deputy Speaker, this failure is born of a view that the government is some sort of victim of these historical incidents, but these are things that are happening right now. We saw today— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sorry, I give the call to the member for Lalor on a point of order, I presume? Ms Ryan: I want to remind the member for Groom of your preference to being called Deputy Speaker and to leave the 'Madam' out of it. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It's not a strict point of order, there, member for Lalor. It is perfectly true that my preference is to be called Deputy Speaker. Give it a try. Mr HAMILTON: My sincere apologies. It was not meant in any way other than to be as appropriate as possible. Forgive me. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you. Mr HAMILTON: I'm glad to be taken off point because—this is really the government's whole role, their whole game, to point back across and not take any responsibility for what's happening now. We saw today's interest rate rise. If we're talking about cost-of-living pressures, the first interest rate rise, back in May, is only being passed on to people now. So we've got four more of these coming. They're about to hit—one after the other, like a train. Across Australia this cost-of-living pressure will continue to rise, and this is happening entirely on Labor's watch. I'm sure that we'll be asked to wait until the budget to see anything happen here. We'll be asked to wait until the budget, and we'll have to have patience, because Labor has absolutely no intention of acting at all on cost-of-living pressures until then. We know every Labor Treasurer wants to be seen as an economic conservative and the Treasurer will be trying to present that in this budget, but Australians will be waiting with the patience of a chopping block on this one, because we know what's coming. This is going to be a tax-and-spend budget. We can see it. Labor have made their intentions very, very clear.