E&OE.
Well, I hope everyone’s had a good break – because there’s a lot of hard work ahead.
I want to say thank you to each and every one of you for the hard work that you’ve already undertaken in your electorates.
I think we’ve all heard a message right across the country, and it’s not the Prime Minister’s message that, this is a year of optimism and that people are very happy with where the Government’s at – it’s not that situation at all.
There are families who thought two and a half years ago that this was going to be a Government for them, and that this was going to be a Prime Minister who understood their concerns. It’s been anything but that.
There are families who are hurting all over the country. There are 27,000 small businesses now who have failed. There’s been a three-fold increase in the number of manufacturing businesses that have closed over the course of the last two and a half years – and it is not getting better.
What we do know is that the Government has lost its way.
We know that the Prime Minister’s not up to his task, and we know that there are many families suffering because of it.
Food is up by 12 per cent.
Rents are up by 17 per cent.
Electricity is up by over 30 per cent.
Gas by over 30 per cent.
And this Government has no answers for them.
So I think there is momentum for change.
I think people do want to get their country back on track and certainly that’s what we want to do.
With your support, we can do that.
We have an opportunity to – as John Howard and Peter Costello did – to get into government, to clean up Labor’s mess, and to make the decisions which are necessary to help families, not to hurt them.
Unfortunately, decision after decision by Jim Chalmers and Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese have just made a bad situation worse for families.
I want to make sure that we can continue to talk very freely and frankly to the Australian people, and if we do that, then I think we can win the next election – but there’s a lot of hard work between now and then.
We have, I think, a Prime Minister who is living in a parallel universe at the moment.
The Prime Minister says that essentially families have never had a better off because inflation is off a bit, but all these prices are up.
For people in the Jewish community and right across the country now, Australians are watching their Prime Minister, knowing that he’s out of his depth and knowing that he’s not up to the task, particularly in relation to law and order and keeping our country safe.
The first charge of a Prime Minister is to keep our people safe – and the Prime Minister has failed at that basic task.
People in Jewish communities are really living in fear at the moment.
And yet in the Prime Minister’s discussion yesterday with his caucus, he never mentioned anti-Semitism once, even though it is a national crisis in our country.
It’s indicative of further problems, obviously, right across society.
So, I want to make sure that we can take the decisions that are required, including minimum mandatory sentencing for people who commit terrorist attacks.
I want a very clear message to be heard by anybody who has evil in their heart that we have absolute zero tolerance for anti-Semitism.
When I was Immigration Minister and Home Affairs Minister, we cancelled 6,300 visas of people who had committed serious crimes against Australian citizens.
The Government has dropped the ball in relation to that important issue.
I think we need to have a strong approach to keeping our country safe, to making sure that we can stamp out anti-Semitism.
We don’t do that by trying to pander to the left and to the Greens.
When you look at what the Prime Minister is doing on energy policy at the moment – which is a complete train wreck.
When you look at what they’re doing on housing – they’ve created a housing crisis through their migration and economic policies.
When you look at what they’ve done in the economy – they’ve created an economic crisis.
That has been the two-and-a-half years of the Albanese Government.
There is a much better way ahead for us and that’s exactly what we will communicate to the Australian people over the course of the next two and a half years.
So, thank you so much for all the work you’ve done.
A lot of hard work ahead and let’s go forward.
Whenever the election’s called, we’re prepared to fight and to take the fight up to the Government, but most importantly, to lay out our plans to help families, to help small businesses, and to help our country get Back on Track.
Thank you.
[ends]