Mr TAYLOR (Hume) (15:59): I don't think the Assistant Treasurer has ever been so enthusiastic to hear from me after that diatribe. This is an enormously important topic—the government's incompetence and mismanagement. Now comes the end of our bipartisanship, because it has been two long years since the Albanese Labor government has been in power. Of course, before the last election, over two years ago, they promised a lot. They promised a $275 electricity price reduction, they promised cheaper mortgages and they promised that Australians would be better off. Even before the national account figures came out today—dire figures that they are—the Australian economy was in dire straits. This Treasurer is nothing but the 'sultan of spin'; he pretends to be a Doctor of Economics, but he's not. He's a doctor of spin. There's a true Doctor of Economics over there, while I'm talking about those opposite; he actually is a Doctor of Economics. But not the Treasurer; the Treasurer's PhD thesis was on his mentor, Paul Keating. It was nothing more than a very long love letter to Paul Keating. But this is the guy who is running the economy right now. And when you look at the results, they're truly tragic, because Australians are poorer under Labor and Australians are poorer since this Treasurer has been in the role. A typical Australian family with a mortgage is $35,000 worse off than when Labor came to power. Those opposite like to talk about real wages. Well, here are the facts on real wages. For a typical working family, wages have collapsed, on average, by nine per cent. Indeed, the RBA governor said at estimates today, that real wages have gone down. There's no debate about that at all. The latest CPI figures show that Labor's cost-of-living crisis is hurting hardworking Australians in extraordinary ways. The numbers are really quite extraordinary: food, grocery prices, up by 11 per cent; housing is up by 14 per cent; rent by 13 per cent; electricity by 20 per cent; and gas by 25 per cent. They were going to fix the gas price, but it's up by 25 per cent. Those caps are working, aren't they? Health is up 11 per cent; education is up 11 per cent; and financial services and insurance are up 15 per cent. And consumer confidence is entrenched at recessionary lows. Inflation in Australia is too high, it's too persistent and it is homegrown. The RBA governor, again, is calling it as she sees it. She made it clear again today that it is homegrown inflation. In fact, we know that homegrown inflation is five times the imported inflation—we see that in the data. The Economist has again declared that Australia has the most persistent stuck inflation—it's stubborn; it's not moving—in the advanced world. Our core inflation is higher than in the US, the UK, Japan, Canada and the euro area, and we are the only country amongst these where inflation is not coming down but is going up. It's gone up since December. The Treasurer say it's all tickety-boo: 'No worries, all under control; I've got it steering in the right direction. Inflation is going up beautifully.' It means he gets more revenue, of course! It's great for governments: destroy the household budget to help the government budget. That's what he's doing. But we know that our inflation is unique amongst these countries, with core inflation in Australia going up. This is the path to ruin. But that's before we even learnt what we learned today from the national accounts, which came out only a couple of hours ago. It's clear from what came out today that there are no winners under the Albanese Labor government. Australians are poorer again and Australians are worse off. It's worth going through some of the numbers. We all see the reality on the ground every day. We see it in the food banks and we see it in our mortgage belt areas, where people are struggling just to buy the basics of life. We see it when we go to sport in our electorates and see that families are struggling even to pay the fees for their kids to play local sports. Mr Sukkar: Homelessness! Mr TAYLOR: We see it with homelessness, as the shadow minister says. We see it wherever we go, but we saw it today in the figures in a startling, startling way. We see from the GDP numbers that this is the weakest annual growth since 1991. In 1991, Bob Hawke was the Prime Minister—until December. Of course, he was rolled by his Treasurer, who blamed the bad economy on the Prime Minister. Well, the bloke over there—he hasn't turned up—I'm sure will be blaming everybody, and ultimately the Prime Minister, because that's exactly what happened in 1991 and that's the last time we saw growth where it is today. We've seen negative GDP per capita growth—that's per person. That's the one that really counts, because what you feel is the economy on a per-person basis. That's how we see it. That's how families see it. That's five quarters of negative GDP per capita growth—five in a row. It just doesn't stop—1.3 per cent through the year. We know that the only thing growing in the economy now is the population, and that is not how you make people better off. Again, they're extraordinary numbers that we see today. There are over 1.2 million more Australians than two years ago. We're a proud immigrant nation, but that is too many for our housing supply. It's too many for our economy to absorb and cope with. We're seeing it in the inflation figures; we're seeing it in everything as we get around Australia. There is another extraordinary number in what came out today, which is the productivity results. It's true that the RBA governor made the point today— Mr Jones interjecting— Mr TAYLOR: We'll talk about this. I'm glad to take that interjection from the Assistant Treasurer, because he should have a look at the numbers. That has fallen by 5.2 per cent under this Labor government. Labour productivity has fallen by 5.2 per cent since Labor came to power. By the way, it's important to note that the number that came out today is very different from the RBA's forecast, and that tells you the RBA has a very big problem with this government. The Doctor of Economics over there knows that if the government doesn't do its role, if it doesn't get it right on its policies, the RBA has to do all the work, and that's pretty damn hard work when productivity has gone backwards by five per cent—over five per cent—in two years. It's a diabolical position for the RBA governor to be in, but that's what this government has achieved, and Australians are paying a huge price for that—not surprisingly, when labour productivity has gone back that far. That has not happened since the data series on productivity began. This is the first time we've seen anything like it. It is completely unique. Those opposite like to say this has happened before; it hasn't happened before. Household disposable incomes are down 7.8 per cent since Labor came to power. That's your standard of living. That's Australians' standard of living: real household per capita disposable incomes down almost eight per cent since Labor came to power. Labor makes you poorer, Deputy Speaker—that's what we see in the numbers. The result is that Australians are having to dig deep. Savings have gone almost to zero—0.9 per cent. People have given up. They're digging deep into their piggy banks because that's all they've got left. There is nothing else left. They're cutting back on any spending they can cut back on. They're working extra hours. They're having to work harder and dig deep into their savings. Australians are paying a high price for this government, this Treasurer, this Assistant Treasurer and their absolute ineptitude. There is a better way. It's going back to basics, making sure that you align your immigration policy with your housing supply. I would have thought that was common sense, but it's not common sense to those opposite. It means making sure you don't spend money that you don't have to. Corporate welfare—those opposite love it. We've seen in estimates over recent days the waste from the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme: $600,000 for a speechwriter. I'll tell you what: the speech we got today wasn't worth that! There is a better way. It is about going back to basics and about getting Australia back on track.