Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) | Link to this | Hansard source

In Greek mythology, Medusa didn't defeat her victims with strength, but by stopping them seeing the danger until it was too late. Today, the Medusa effect in Labor's poisonous policies is real. It's measured in mortgage repayments, in rent hikes and in supermarket receipts. After 15 interest rate rises under Labor, a family with a mortgage is around $29,000 a year worse off. The cost-of-living pain is not from Medusa's cold stare; it is from the Albanese government's heartless taxes, homegrown inflation, and increases in electricity and in food. While trying to distract Australians with a $250 sweetener, Labor locked in an extra $70 billion in taxes over the next four years in their budget. The government and the Prime Minister have too many faces: one for the election campaign, one for question time and one behind closed doors doing deals with the Greens while layers of stone form around Australian family budgets.

While the bills arrive, the Prime Minister refuses to look Australians in the eyes, instead leaving them in the coils of Labor's tax serpents. A father from Glenmore Park said, 'They're treating Australians like top-tier earners, penalising a lifetime of hard work and self-reliance.' No matter which face this government presents, the Medusa effect, is the same—another piece of the Australian dream slowly turning to stone.