During the Parliament’s latest sitting fortnight, Labor tried to rush through far reaching immigration laws with virtually no scrutiny, engaged in secret and opaque consultation processes on religious discrimination laws and tried to paper over its disastrous family car tax on the country’s top selling vehicles.
What’s more, while all of this was going on, the cost of living crisis has continued and has shown no signs of slowing down.
Latest inflation data is a reminder of the extraordinary financial pain that hardworking Australian families are experiencing because of the Albanese Labor Government’s bad policies.
Under Labor's watch, everyday essentials are becoming increasingly more unaffordable for hardworking families. Prices for bread, milk, rent, and utilities have skyrocketed:
Bread by 16.4 per cent; milk by 17.6 per cent; rent by 12.1 per cent; electricity by 16.5 per cent; gas by 26.4 per cent; education by 10.9 per cent and insurance and financial services by 14.1 per cent.
It is the Albanese Government’s failure on immigration detention issues that really highlight their incompetence.
The Department of Home Affairs admitted that 73 of the 152 people the Albanese Government released from immigration detention are not wearing ankle bracelets.
And, shockingly, the Australian Border Force Commissioner admitted they do not keep track of how many offenders have been charged by State and Territory police, and whether or not the individuals charged are being electronically monitored.
Evidently, Labor has not learnt from its past mistakes on border protection and immigration detention and continues to deliver chaos.
Worse yet, Labor's religious discrimination legislation is shrouded in secrecy, leaving many in the dark and faith leaders deeply concerned.
Stakeholders and journalists were flooding the Opposition with requests for briefings about the proposed legislation because the Albanese Government has refused to release the legislation for all to see.
One week after telling his Labor caucus he would not move on religious discrimination legislation without bipartisan support from the Coalition, he then told his caucus the next week that he would do a deal with the Australian Greens if he needed to.
The Coalition’s guiding principle is that any religious discrimination legislation should take faith leaders forward, and not backwards.
Having seen the proposal, the Government has put forward, it is clear there is a long way to go. We will work with the Government in good faith on this issue, but Mr Albanese should address faith leaders’ concerns as a matter of urgency.
Labor’s attempts last week to put its vehicle efficiency policy into reverse does nothing to stop price rises for Australia’s most popular vehicles because of its tax on existing models.
The minor changes mean that after the next election, families, farmers, tradies, and small business owners will still be forced to pay more for new cars.
The Coalition understands that families need larger cars and there aren’t many hybrid or EV options. And those that are available are beyond most families' budgets.
In a cost of living crisis, now isn’t the time to be driving the price of vehicles up by $1000s.
You can read more in my latest op-ed in the West Australian here.
Labor have proven time and time again that they are unfit to govern.
They’re failing on immigration detention issues, failing on properly consulting on religious discrimination laws, and failing on getting the cost-of-living crisis and taxes under control.
We cannot trust a government that flip-flops on crucial issues and fails to listen to the wants and needs of the Australian people.
Peter Dutton has promised to stay off the backs of business if the Coalition is elected to government in 2025.
At his address to the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia on Wednesday, he outlined the Coalition’s plan to decrease centralised government and diminish the power of unions:
We will wind-back excessive government intervention which is holding back our economy.
We will remove regulatory roadblocks and stay off the backs of businesses to allow them the freedom to flourish.
And we will look to make our industrial relations system simpler and cooperative – removing the complexity and hostility brought back by Labor at the behest of its union paymasters.
The Coalition’s plan will allow sustainable wage growth off-the-back of productivity and economic growth – unlike Labor’s plan which is nothing but a mishmash of misguided priorities, increased union powers and more red tape that’s being pushed by inner-city elites, big business, union bosses, industry super funds and woke advocates.
You can read his full address to COSBOA here.