Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sunshine Coast residents have never done it tougher. Rental prices have increased by 27 per cent in just one year. Families with an average mortgage are now paying an additional $22,000 a year. We have senior citizens, mums and dads and even children living on the street—nearly 1,000 people every single night.

Now, this is very clearly a problem that has started since the Albanese government came to power. It's why the coalition has announced a housing plan of $5 billion to unlock half a million homes across Australia. It's why the coalition believe that we have to get back to basics. We have to build, again, a strong economy in Australia, not because a strong economy is an end unto itself but because only with a strong economy can you ensure homes can be built, people can put food on the table and we can provide vital public services. That's the importance of a strong economy. But this Albanese Labor government has failed on the economy, and it has failed the Australian people, including those I serve in this parliament, the people of the Sunshine Coast. Where Labor has failed, only a coalition government can fix it.

These problems, we know, are not just on the Sunshine Coast; they're right across the country. It is why we have seen even gas prices increase by a whopping 34 per cent since the Albanese government came to power. It is why food and education have increased by nearly 12 per cent. After 12 interest rate increases, is it any wonder that the Australian people are hurting so much? Insurance has increased by about 17 per cent.

Then, of course, we have the problems with energy. We have a government that went to the last election promising the Australian people a $275 reduction in their household power bills, yet we have households around Australia paying up to $1,000 a year more than what this Prime Minister promised.

This is all as a result of a labour movement which is focused on everything but a strong economy, and when you fail to deliver a strong economy you fail the very people that all of us parliamentarians are sent here to Canberra to serve. It is why only a coalition will put the economy first and, by extension, the people of Australia first.