A fed-up Australian woman says what every Australian thinks about the cost of living

A no-nonsense Australian woman has taken the government to task over the cost of living – saying not enough is being done to help the middle class.

Gayle Hardiman, an audience member on ABC’s Q+A, expressed her concerns about the growing cost of living during Monday night’s episode.

‘My husband and I immediately cut back on our expenses. We don’t eat out, use toll roads or drink many cups of coffee a day,” Ms Hardiman said.

“We’re really thinking about how we can save money because it’s really hurting everyone.”

Ms Hardiman asked the Q+A panel what immediate measures the Government could take to ease pressure on the cost of living.

Jo Masters, chief economist at Barrenjoey, explained that inflation is the main reason why many people experience financial problems.

“The truth is the best thing we can do to help all Australians is to get inflation down,” Ms Masters said.

“That means we need the government not to overspend in this economy. We don’t want them to fuel inflation further.’

ABC’s Q+A audience member Gayle Hardiman called on the government to take immediate action to ease the cost of living for millions of Australians

Ms Masters said the Government has already introduced some measures to reduce the cost of living, such as tax cuts and subsidized electricity, and suggested additional relief could be considered.

“They have still provided some policy assistance to the Australians who are most vulnerable, but what we know from history is that assistance must be timely, temporary and, most importantly, targeted.”

However, Ms Hardiman responded to the suggestion, saying immediate action should be taken.

‘What about dental insurance, health insurance, home insurance, car insurance, registration, road tolls, gas, groceries? I mean, the list goes on,” Ms. Hardiman said.

“For most people from the middle class and below, I don’t know how they get by day after day. I seriously don’t.

‘Think of people who don’t go to the dentist now because they don’t have enough money. There are so many aspects of what we are talking about here that need immediate attention.”

She explained that the cost of living crisis caused people to lose hope for a better quality of life.

“My husband and I’s grocery store is simply stunning,” Mrs. Hardiman said.

Barrenjoey chief economist Jo Masters said the government knows Australians are ‘hurting’

‘I know a number of people who don’t have a home and who pay rent every week.

‘And if they have a few children, how do they pay the rent, all those high tolls, the high bills for groceries, education, I mean medical care, and so on.

“People get to the point where they have lost all hope of a better way of life than what they are experiencing now.”

She also criticized the government over the toll roads, arguing that costs for motorists continue to rise, with many forced to spend a significant amount of money just to get to work.

Warwick McKibbin, a former Reserve Bank board member, warns that high government spending will keep inflation higher for longer.

“It’s not just high immigration, it’s also excessive demand from state and federal governments – they’re still pumping money into the economy, which isn’t necessarily a problem if you have productivity growth,” he explained.

‘The problem is that we have no productivity growth.

‘You have too much government demand in the economy; you don’t have enough effective employees in the right sectors.

Mrs Hardiman said she and her husband had cut back on their spending but still suffered from grocery shopping headaches

“It’s a whole, multifaceted series of policy mistakes that are causing inflation to exceed the central bank’s target.”

Underlying inflation of 3.5 percent is still above the Reserve Bank’s target of 2 to 3 percent, but services inflation in the year to September was even higher at 4.6 percent.

Headline inflation fell to a three-year low of 2.8 percent, mainly due to one-off factors such as the government’s temporary $300 electricity rebates and lower gasoline prices at the moment.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock has spoken about the prospect of another rate hike amid fears of another spike in inflation.

“The reason we’re not ruling anything in or out is because we think there are still some positive risks,” she said earlier this month.

‘We talked in the statement about some of the risks on the downside, but the underlying inflation we face is still around 5 percent – that’s still a significant amount.

“And that suggests that demand still exceeds supply, which we talked about earlier, and that we still have a labor market that looks on the tight side.”

Q+A presenter Patricia Karvelas

Another 25 basis point increase would take the RBA cash rate to a 13-year high of 4.6 percent and add $100 to monthly repayments on an average $600,000 mortgage.

Ms Bullock, who has a degree of independence from the government, minced no words in blaming high population growth for keeping inflation high.

“What keeps aggregate demand up – even if it doesn’t grow much – what keeps it up is population growth,” she told reporters half an hour after the Melbourne Cup.

“Aggregate demand is still above the supply of the economy – even if demand isn’t growing, it is still above aggregate supply.”