Ms LEY (Farrer—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:42): It gives me great pleasure to speak on today's matter of public importance. Every week—in fact, every question time—brings more chaos and dysfunction from this distracted and chaotic government. Today was a really good example. We had the hapless immigration minister acknowledging that he has lost hardened criminals on the streets after previously inviting them to be case-managed by his department; the hopeless home affairs minister, sent up day after day to try and back him in; and the obfuscating Prime Minister, who just doesn't have the courage to give a straight answer to the question, 'Why did you not defend our Australian sailors from an attack by the Chinese navy by demonstrating that you back them in when you had a chance with the Chinese President?' They are obfuscating every single day. It's minister after minister. I can't even begin on the environment and water minister, or I don't know what will happen for the rest of this MPI. But she has single-handedly traded off the lives and livelihoods of the farmers and food and fibre producers in the Murray-Darling Basin without ever having the courage to look them in the eye and tell them what she really has in store for them. I want to quote from the front page of the Australian the day after the Prime Minister launched his election campaign just over 18 months ago. It's important that we go back there. The headline makes it clear what his core promises about his potential government were all about. The headline was 'Life will be "cheaper" under me'. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Member for Farrer, no props are to be used. You know very well this rule. Ms LEY: This was an important speech. Deputy Speaker, I thank you for reminding me. This was an important speech. It was a speech where the now Prime Minister was outlining what he would do and what Australians could expect under his leadership, and the contents of what he said left Australians at that time with no room for doubt. He concluded his speech with this crescendo of promises. He said: Labor has real, lasting plans for cheaper electricity … cheaper mortgages … He said: We can do better than three more years of the Government that's brought us skyrocketing costs of living … We have the worst inflation rate in two decades. Families are struggling, worried about the future. … … … … as your Prime Minister – I won't run from responsibility. I won't treat every crisis as a chance to blame someone else. I will show up, I will step up … Well, poll after poll demonstrates that Australians feel like they're worse off today than when the Labor Party was elected 18 months ago. As they pass the halfway mark of this government, they can see what life is like under this Prime Minister. They're not liking what they're seeing. They're seeing a distracted and chaotic government, and a prime minister who goes missing in action when it matters most. We know these overseas trips are important; of course we do. But we also know the look of glee on the Prime Minister's face as he steps once more onto the red carpet and once more into his dedicated VIP aircraft and leaves the country. Mr Howarth: What about the deputy of the VIP? Ms LEY: The deputy indeed. We know what that tells us about his priorities. We know what that tells us about his priorities for Australians who are struggling with the cost of living, because the reality is that Labor's chaotic handling of the economy is imposing harsh new costs on households and families. Today, under Labor, according to Foodbank Australia's Foodbank hunger report 2023—that's the name of the report, the 'hunger report'—3.7 million Australian households are going hungry or on the edge of falling into hunger; and, just weeks away from Christmas, 77 per cent of Australian households experiencing food insecurity are doing so for the very first time. Sixty per cent are going hungry, and they are employed. You only have to visit these food charities to see the pain on their faces. Mr Pasin: Lining up for Foodbank. Ms LEY: That's right, Member for Barker. We have a growing class of working poor. Breadlines are appearing in our cities once again. In the 2020s, like the 1920s, Australia is looking less like the lucky country and more like the hungry country—such a far cry from what the Prime Minister promised: 'No-one left behind, always looking after the disadvantaged and vulnerable; that's what my government will do.' Well, millions and millions of Australians are being left behind. As I said, you visit these food charities, as we all do, and you're told how they see an immediate spike in presentations once mortgages go up. And, unfortunately, mortgages may be going up further, with the Reserve Bank governor confirming that Australia has world-leading inflation, driven not by overseas factors but by domestic factors. It isn't just mortgages that are biting. Labor is hammering Australians on every front. Food is up eight per cent; housing, up 10 per cent; insurance, up 17 per cent; electricity, up 18 per cent; and gas, up 28 per cent. From rents to retail, inflation is due to Labor's reckless decision to bring in hundreds of thousands of migrants without a plan to house them. The services Australians need cost more today because of rises in electricity and rents. They're all things that Labor has done by driving up inflation. I didn't mention the preposterous energy minister—that's the only description I have for him in every single question time—and the ridiculous statements he makes, because what he doesn't understand is what we see in the manufacturing businesses of Australia: hurt, pain, doors closing, employees being let go and no prospect of actually making things in Australia, as the Labor government wants us to do. It's really no surprise that prices are surging. From the cost of building your first home to your morning coffee, food in the supermarket and even your Uber trip, Labor are fixated on driving up prices exactly when we need them to do the opposite. We can't let this MPI go past without talking about national security, because we shouldn't forget it took President Biden and ASIO director Mike Burgess to remind Australians of the threats posed by China—by the Chinese Communist Party—when the Prime Minister failed to do so. He used to talk tough on Chinese ownership of the port of Darwin, but he opted for the status quo. He reassured us his rapprochement with China was just about business, but his officials told the diaspora community that his visit to Beijing was purely political. And disgracefully, after his government stage-managed the release of information to avoid awkward questions about this attack on our Navy divers, he still refuses to confirm whether or not he stood up for our people when he met President Xi Jinping. It cannot be the case that we have a prime minister who speaks up for Aussie pandas when he's in China—happy to be photographed with the pandas—but refuses to speak up for our Navy divers. The government claims to be kicking goals in foreign policy, but all I can see is chaos. The chaos on our borders has really been writ large in the parliament over the last fortnight because Labor have released over 100 hardened criminals into the community and now we've learnt that they can't account for them. The minister for immigration has promised me a list. The minister for immigration promised me a list of how many rapists, murderers and paedophiles he has released. An opposition member: Have you got it yet? Ms LEY: No, I haven't got it, even though he said he would do that on 14 November. He told me he would provide me with a list. Under Labor, we now have new asylum seekers arriving by boat being put into Nauru, with the first child going into detention since Labor was last in government. Weak on borders, weak on defence, weak on foreign policy—Labor are proving an Australian political truism: when given enough rope, they are economic and national security failures. It is chaos. If you're bewildered about how we got here, remember what the Prime Minister's sole focus was for his first 500 days in office. His first and total focus was the Voice. He doesn't mention it now. He took the Voice referendum from a 61-39 majority to the bottom of the cliff, 61-39 against. He killed constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians for at least a generation. He is tricky and slippery with the truth. This may seem like a small thing but, my goodness, it's indicative. Just last week, he tried to claim that he hadn't had any time off for a year, but he actually announced to the media in April that he was going on a week's leave. He told an audience, 'I haven't had any time off.' He said, 'I don't talk about private meetings with world leaders,' but then he briefed out what he discussed with President Biden in October. 'I don't talk about the National Security Committee.' He has said that many times. Well, time after time he likes to talk about the National Security Committee. He likes to mislead. Unfortunately, he peddles mistruths when it suits him. The consequences are clear for all of us to see. Today the excellent, outstanding shadow minister for communications brought a bill into this place about an online safety amendment to protect Australian children from online harm, and this government voted against it. Shame on them. Do we really think that it's okay to ignore the eSafety Commissioner? She is a really good person who spent two years researching the issue of online harm to children and came up with what I think is quite a moderate proposal, which is to do a trial about age verification, to try to restrict access by younger children to violent pornography online. Why would you not support that? I encourage everyone to listen to the words of the shadow minister for communications and others who spoke in that debate, including the crossbench. There was a very powerful intervention from the member for Mayo, and others on the crossbench were saying, 'What on earth is wrong with the government that it wouldn't support this?' That's it, you see, Deputy Speaker. Every single day— (Time expired)