Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This nation is at the crossroads, and the next election is going to determine which direction it takes. That is why it's going to be absolutely vital that the coalition wins. If we have another three years under Anthony Albanese and his failed Labor government, we're going to see cost of living continue to increase and we're going to see our living standards continue to fall. Those living standards have fallen faster than at any time in this nation's history.

What do we need to do to get Australia back on track? The first thing we need to do is provide immediate cost-of-living relief, and that is what we would do. We would halve the fuel excise on the first day the parliament sits with a new coalition government. What does that mean? That means, for an average family, especially in a rural community like mine in a rural constituency like mine, the electorate of Wannon, they would immediately save in the first year between $750 and $1,500. That is immediate cost-of-living relief. We will make sure that we also manage the economy properly. We will put downward pressure on inflation. We will put downward pressure on interest rates. That is what sensible economic management will achieve.

We will make sure that we address the cuts that we have seen to road funding. The two major roads that run through my electorate, the Princes Highway and the Western Highway, have seen the contribution made by the federal government to their maintenance and to improving those roads drop. For every dollar the Victorian state government put in, we used to put in $4. Now, for every dollar the Victorian state government puts in, the federal government under Anthony Albanese only puts in $1. We need to change that and we need to change it quickly because everyone in Victoria knows that the Allan Labor government has no money. It's broke. If the Commonwealth doesn't put in more money, we're not going to see that immediate attention given to our road network.

What else will we do? We will make sure that there is no offshore wind farm off the coast of Port Fairy and Warrnambool. Chris Bowen has tried to ramrod this project through our local communities, and we will make sure that it doesn't go ahead. We will continue to roll out community projects and we will fund them in the budget, unlike this Anthony Albanese Labor government, which put no new funding for those regional community projects in the budget. In the most important election we have faced in years, you've got to vote for the coalition.