Opinion: Get the Australia we love back on track

Published in the Nepean News, 24 May 2024

This week marks two years since the Albanese Labor Government was elected, where the Prime Minister promised a $275 reduction in people’s power bills, cheaper mortgages, and to make families better off. With three Budgets under Labor’s belt, in Western Sydney we now have double income families lining up at food charities for the first time, and Australians across the country are doing it extremely tough.

The Albanese Labor Government ran out of excuses on its election promise to reduce household energy bills by $275, when the draft Default Market Offer (DMO) revealed residents are paying as much as $1,027 more in Western Sydney, which is a 37% increase since Labor came to power.

The $300 rebate announced in the Budget doesn’t even scratch the surface when families are paying so much more.

Last week, every credible economist was scathing of Labor’s Budget, which failed to tackle inflation and is making our economic situation worse. This cost of living crisis which is gripping so many in Western Sydney has been created by Labor’s own homegrown inflation. People are working harder than ever but their money doesn’t go far, whether at the petrol station or supermarket, and so many small businesses are sadly failing under skyrocketing costs.

While people are struggling to pay mortgages and rents, Labor is making the housing crisis worse by bringing in a record 1.67 million migrants over 5 years. How will Western Sydney cope with this when Labor isn’t giving us the infrastructure we need now, let alone with an increased population?

The Albanese Government recently ripped out $2 billion in essential Western Sydney infrastructure funding while our region is rapidly growing and a new international airport is opening in two years. After community and media pressure, some of the funding has been returned, but extraordinarily not the full amount for Mulgoa Road, nor funding to upgrade potholed roads around Luddenham that are going to be major freight corridors in the not to distant future.

And then we have the Dunheved Road upgrade, which the Albanese Labor Government promised to fast-track. This hasn’t happened and the start of construction is now a year and a half behind schedule on this Penrith Council road.

Whether it is infrastructure, energy costs, or Australian manufacturing, our country is being hoodwinked by this Labor Government, and it is time to get the Australia we love back on track. I’ll be fighting for this every day as the local MP and Shadow Minister for Western Sydney.