Mr FLETCHER (Bradfield—Manager of Opposition Business) (15:32): The most urgent issue facing Australian families is the cost-of-living crisis. We see a drumbeat of pieces of evidence for this proposition. Just last week the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted rates for the eighth consecutive time on this government's watch to 3.35 per cent, and of course the actual rates that households pay are much higher than that. The last time interest rates were this high was when Labor were last in office. The Prime Minister was forced to admit that 800,000 Australians will move from lower fixed rates to higher variable rates over the course of 2023, creating a serious shock to the budgets of many households. If you're presently on a fixed mortgage rate of 1.8 per cent and you're suddenly going to 5.8 per cent, that is a huge cost to the family budget. For a typical family that has entered into a new mortgage of $750,000 that means additional payments of $18,000 a year. Just think about the likely knock-on effects for local restaurants and clothes retailers—in fact, all across the economy. Reports are showing that an alarming one in five Australian households are suffering mortgage stress, including an estimated more than 100,000 pushed into it after the latest rate rise under the Albanese government. Many small businesses are in the same boat. The Prime Minister was asked about this very issue in question time. He has failed to tell us how many, but we know that a significant proportion of small businesses will have a loan that will move from a fixed rate to a higher variable rate this year. We know that rents are increasing. Recent reports show that rental prices are at historic highs across most capital cities. We know that energy bills are skyrocketing. The government itself admitted in its budget that it expects electricity bills to be up 56 per cent and gas bills to be up 40 per cent over the foreseeable future. We know from the instances that hardworking members on this side of the House have highlighted that Joe and Julie Siragusa, in the electorate of Flinders, are facing a $667 increase in their gas bill. The member for Barker told the House that the food manufacturer Nippy's is facing an increase in its gas bill of 92.5 per cent—$900,000. And today, of course, we learned that unemployment has jumped to 3.7 per cent, with over 30,000 people losing their jobs in the last two months. So there is no question that this nation and Australian families are facing a serious and pressing cost-of-living crisis. But what do we hear from this government? The telling and grim reality is that this government has no answers or plan. What do they say when they are asked about these issues in question time? What do they say? Mr Rae: There's a trillion dollars of debt. Mr Pasin: Calm down, Hairspray! The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Order! Member for Barker, withdraw the comment. Mr Pasin: I withdraw. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you. Manager of Opposition Business, you may proceed. Mr FLETCHER: They tell us that they recalled parliament on 15 December. It was supposedly to come up with a plan on energy prices. But the simple fact is that these measures are hopelessly inadequate. If we just look at rising interest rates, on a typical mortgage a family is paying $18,000 more a year. You would need to have 1,400 scripts a year for the savings to outweigh your extra mortgage costs, and obviously almost nobody is going to be in that position. Of course, child care is important for Australians with young children, but the relief won't start until July and, for millions and millions of Australians, they are not at a stage of life where that is going to be providing assistance. What is the plan to deal with rising interest rates? It is increasingly clear that this government does not have a plan beyond repeatedly saying, 'The independent Reserve Bank of Australia.' Who says that? The Treasurer. The man who appoints the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia constantly says, 'The independent Reserve Bank of Australia.' This government is in disarray in how they are dealing with the challenge of repeatedly rising interest rates. Last week the Assistant Treasurer had this to say about interest rate rises. He said he was hoping that 'if this is not the last it's near the last of the rate increases'. Hope is not a plan, and it's clearly not a very well-founded hope because, regardless of what the Assistant Treasurer in his bumbling fashion might say, if you ask the man who's actually got responsibility, together with the board, he says that further increases in interest rates will be needed over the months ahead. So we have this bumbling Assistant Treasurer saying that he is hoping it is near the last of the rate increases. What is very clear is that this government simply does not have a plan to deal with rising interest rates. That's before we turn to the pressing problem of energy. On 97 occasions before the election, the Prime Minister promised that energy bills would be lower by $275. He arrived at that conclusion based upon modelling work done by the member for McMahon. What a distinguished track record he has had in this place! He's the same genius who came up with Fuel Watch, Grocery Watch and the Malaysian solution, and the Labor Party turned to him and said, 'Tell us what to do about energy prices.' He came up with dodgy modelling and, on the basis of that, on 97 occasions the Prime Minister told the Australian people before the election that energy bills would go down by $275. Exactly the opposite has been happening. As bills have been rocketing around the country, their solution was an urgent parliamentary recall in the middle of December. Supposedly the details were going to be finalised by the National Cabinet by March. We've now learned that's not going to happen until the budget in May. The New South Wales Treasurer, repeatedly quoted, I must say, by the Prime Minister, has come out and said the money promised by the Commonwealth has not yet materialised. Let's be clear. Even if this relief is ever delivered, the simple fact is that Australians' power bills will be going up by hundreds of billions of dollars, even after whatever the government manages to deliver, not down by the $275 which the Prime Minister repeatedly promised. Perhaps the single most troubling aspect of all of this is that, in the face of these pressing problems, which are urgently engaging Australian families around the kitchen table all across our country, it is abundantly clear that dealing with these problems is not the central focus of this government. They have their mind on other things. Indeed, the man who is supposed to be right at the centre of the response—instead of focusing on how he can drive down interest rates, how he can get inflation under control—has been writing 6,000-word essays quoting Greek philosophers. He does want us to know that he's really clever. He reads weighty books like Jared Diamond's Upheaval; he name checks cool leftie economists like Mariana Mazzucato. He's au fait with Nouriel Roubini's gloomy predictions. He has fascinating conversations with people like the Canadian central banker Mark Carney. He wants us to know that he's a big Labor thinker, because what big Labor thinkers spend their summers doing is writing essays for the Monthly. We know that because he pointed it out in the very essay. He said, in case we didn't know, that Kevin Rudd wrote one in February 2009, and that other big Labor thinker, also from Queensland, Wayne Swan, wrote one in March 2012, and Jim's very much in the same tradition—a big Labor thinker, pondering these complex issues over Christmas— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Excuse me, Member for Bradfield— An honourable member interjecting— Mr FLETCHER: Not for Jim; he's got a big to-do list— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Bradfield! Mr FLETCHER: Not for the Treasurer, Deputy Speaker. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: You will use the correct titles when you're referring to members in the House. Mr FLETCHER: That's true, because— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you. We're relying on you to set a good example here. Mr FLETCHER: Indeed, Deputy Speaker—you are absolutely right; I am rightly rebuked, because I should acknowledge and respect the big plans of the Treasurer. He's not rearranging the sock drawer. Instead, he's going to redefine and reform our economy and institutions; he's reimagining and redesigning markets; he's renewing and restructuring the way that our markets allocate and arrange capital; he's going to build a better capitalism, uniquely Australian, and he's going to do it this year, if you read the essay carefully. The simple fact is: if the Treasurer just got on with his day job and had a real plan to get the cost of living down, get energy costs down, get interest rates down and get inflation down, then maybe the rest of us might have quite the high opinion of him that he has of himself.