Working Australians are struggling more than ever, and a parliamentary inquiry into the cost of living crisis reveals we are worse off now than when Anthony Albanese’s government first came to power.
Coalition-led research found the cost of essential goods, including rent, housing, food and utilities, had risen since Albanese became prime minister, while household incomes had stagnated .
As a result, Australian households have experienced the largest decline in disposable income compared to more than developed countries.
The final report released on Friday contained nine recommendations, including a call for a national cabinet to be urgently convened to address “excessive public spending” and for the committee to target government spending to exacerbate inflation.
He also called on Albanese and the country’s state and territory leaders to “develop reforms that improve the productivity of the economy” and pushed for a “deregulation agenda” to boost business competition.
A parliamentary inquiry has called for the national cabinet to meet to cut public spending to tackle the cost of living crisis.
A cost of living inquiry, chaired by Liberal senator Jane Hume, found Australians are poorer now compared to two and a half years ago.
The report encouraged the Coalition and Greens-backed policy of giving the consumer watchdog powers to divest supermarkets as a “last resort” to fight price gouging and bad behaviour.
It has also urged the government to re-establish the construction watchdog, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, to mitigate the fallout from the CFMEU scandal.
Both policies have been rejected by the government.
Chaired by Victorian Liberal senator Jane Hume, the committee has held 21 public hearings, considering evidence from the Reserve Bank, Treasury, unions, small businesses, housing and industry associations, as well as ordinary Australians.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused of failing to combat the cost of living crisis.
While the latest inflation data has revealed that headline inflation has fallen within the Reserve Bank’s target band of 2 to 3 per cent for the first time in three years, Senator Hume said many households and businesses were still They were in “crisis.”
‘Living standards have collapsed and Australians face their third Christmas with less in their pockets. “Many will struggle during this holiday season,” he said.
‘As the Cost of Living Committee has confirmed, inflation is every Australian’s number one enemy.
“Unfortunately, the Labor government has left Australians to fight alone.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers responded to the coalition-led cost of living committee for its findings.
A spokesman for federal treasurer Jim Chalmers rejected claims made in the report and highlighted Labour’s $900 million productivity fund to incentivize states and territories to reduce bureaucracy to boost productivity announced this week.
“If the Liberals really cared about the cost of living, they would have voted for our cost of living reduction in Parliament, but they didn’t,” they said.
“The Coalition left us with much higher inflation, huge deficits, and in the third year of a three-year mandate they still have no credible or cost-effective economic policies.”
The government has said it had restricted real spending growth to 1.4 percent, less than half its 30-year average, while the previous coalition government had average real spending growth of 4.1 percent. percent and found no savings in his final budget.