Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When it comes to incompetence, the Albanese Labor government is certainly reaching new heights of incompetence right across the policy spectrum.

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It certainly is. It's destroying our economy. We're seeing stagnant growth or growth so sluggish our economy's coming to a grinding halt. Productivity's plummeting. They're engaged in an energy transition that is seeing Aussies pay some of the highest electricity prices in the world. It's seeing industries and businesses going offshore because they can't afford to operate in Australia. And that's just on the economic side of things.

On the social side of things we're seeing the country more divided than I think it's ever been. Their failed Voice referendum has divided our nation and damaged it. I see it in my area, where people are still getting over that referendum. Then there is their unbelievable announcement that they are going to recognise Palestine in the middle of a war—it just defies belief. But this is what's driving the division in our community, and this government is fully responsible for it.

It's hard to pick the biggest failure when it comes to this government, but certainly migration would have to be up there with the contenders. You see, before the 2022 election, the Labor Party didn't mention anything about increasing migration and a 'Big Australia' policy. But shortly after the election, when they won, they had their first roundtable, the Jobs and Skills Summit, and one of the recommendations from that was to set migration at record levels and see what happens. Well, we've seen what's happened. We have a homelessness crisis. We have a housing and rental affordability crisis. Australians are suffering at the hands of Labor's political and social experiment. It is a deadset disgrace.

In 2022-23, the Albanese government allowed migration to blow out, with over half a million people coming into the country—half a million people. It wasn't much better the following year, at 430,000, and it's pretty much stayed high ever since, to the point where we have now seen 1.5 million people come into this country since the Albanese government was elected. And the question's got to be asked: where's the infrastructure—the houses, the hospitals, the roads, the dams—to support these people? It just isn't there. And who's paying the price? Aussies. Australians. Everyday Australians are paying the price of this incompetent Labor government.

We're seeing families struggling not only to pay the bills but to put a roof over their head. And, if you haven't got a roof over your head, do you know what you also miss out on? You miss out on the dignity of getting a job, because you need a home if you're working; you need stability in your life. This is so entrenched and so serious that we could see a generation of people who don't know what it's like to own a home, or don't have that hope and that security of owning a home, because of the costs that face them in getting into the housing market. This—100 per cent—lays at the feet of Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister, and the way he has mismanaged our migration system. It's just shocking. Critics have said that this is intentional, that there's a political advantage for the government, and it's hard to argue with them when you have a closer look. Our country was built on a very proud migration system, but it was a sustainable migration system. Migrants coming to this country made it great, but, under this government and the way this government is trashing our migration system, like so many other areas of government and society, people are now starting to reject migration as a concept, which is just shocking and bad. Once again, this lies at the feet of the failed, incompetent Albanese government. (Time expired)