PETER DUTTON: How much worse off will you, your family, and our country be after three more years of Labor?

Are you, your family, and our country better off today than three years ago? That’s the critical question for Australians at this election.

Consider what’s occurred on Labor’s watch.

For 16 months, the Albanese Government focused on the Voice referendum which sought to divide our country by ancestry and race. They took their eye off the economy. They’ve continued to spend taxpayers’ money irresponsibly — a staggering additional $425 billion since coming to power which has fuelled inflation, driven up interest rates 12 times, and created a cost-of-living crisis.

Under Labor, Australians have experienced the worst collapse in living standards in our country’s history — and in the developed world. Next year, debt will pass $1 trillion for the first time.

With Labor’s renewables-only energy policy trainwreck, your electricity bill hasn’t come down by $275 as Anthony Albanese promised on 97 occasions. You’re now paying up to $1300 more than promised. And it will continue to climb. Some 30,000 businesses have gone bust. Manufacturers have closed or moved offshore. And there’s warnings of blackouts and brownouts.

By opening the migration floodgates, Labor created a housing crisis. It’s brought in 1 million people in just two years — that’s 70 per cent more migrants than in any other two-year period in Australia’s history. There’s been more pressure on infrastructure and services. Medicare bulk billing has fallen by 11 per cent nationally.

Anthony Albanese’s weak leadership and bad decisions have also compromised community safety and national security. Anti-Semitism has reached unprecedented levels. Youth crime is a problem in many parts of the country. Labor granted tourist visas to 3000 people from a terrorist-controlled war zone before conducting thorough checks. It released 300 hardcore criminals from immigration detention into the community — with one-third having re-offended. It’s failed to deter people smugglers. And it’s turned a blind eye to Chinese Communist Party military aggression and Russian provocation.

All this in mind, here’s another critical question:

How much worse off will you, your family, and our country be after three more years of Labor?

Australians can’t afford three more years of a bad Labor government, especially one where the green-teals and extreme Greens hold the balance of power.

This election is a sliding doors moment. The choice is clear. Between more of the same under Labor — a weaker, less secure, and worse off Australia. Or much needed change under the Coalition — for a stronger, safer, and better Australia. And we have a plan to get our country back on track.

We will provide immediate cost-of-living relief by halving the fuel tax saving you $14 every time you fill up — about $750 a year, per vehicle. Furthermore, around 85 per cent of taxpayers will get back up to $1200 they’ve paid in tax.

We will address our energy crisis by getting more gas into our domestic system which will reduce wholesale gas prices by 23 per cent. Power bills and costs across the economy will come down. And we will shore up our nation’s future energy security. Australia will become a nuclear-powered nation.

As always, we will clean up Labor’s mess. We will rein in wasteful government spending to get inflation and interest rates down. And we will re-energise and grow the economy. Environmental activists will be de-funded. Mafia-like mobs in our building sector will be stopped. The CFMEU will be de-registered.

We’re aiming to have 400,000 new apprentices in training including the bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers, and electricians we need to boost housing and civil construction.

In ripping up red and green tape, we will get stalled and new projects up and running. More excavators will dig. More gas will flow. More farms will flourish. And more factories will open. Australia will be a mining, agricultural, manufacturing, and construction powerhouse again.

We’ve got tax breaks coming to support small businesses. And under a Coalition government, there will be no tax on unrealised capital gains, no changes to negative gearing, and no inheritance tax.

I will be a prime minister who restores the dream of home ownership. By banning foreign investors and temporary residents from purchasing existing homes for two years. By reducing migration. By investing $5 billion in infrastructure to get housing projects off the ground. By allowing Australians to access up to $50,000 of their super to help with a first home deposit. And by letting Australians deduct the interest they pay on up to $650,000 of their mortgage.

We’re going to deliver quality health care. We have more money committed to Medicare than Labor. We will invest $500 million in women’s health and $400 million in youth mental health. And we will incentivise junior doctors to work as GPs.

Under the Coalition, classrooms will be places of education — not indoctrination. And there will be practical action to improve Indigenous lives — not symbolic gestures.

With a $750 million package to crack down on crime, we will combat the cartels and disrupt the drug trade. We will again deport non-citizen criminals. We will again stop the boats. And we will lift defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP over five years. In a more dangerous world, we must re-tool the Australian Defence Force to deter a larger adversary and protect our national interests.

If I’m given the great honour to lead our country, I will make the tough and responsible decisions. To revive our national confidence. To create certainty for our country amidst international uncertainty. To set us on a course to achieve the economic prosperity, re-industrialisation, energy sovereignty, and national security we need for the future.

And I will remind Australians of the things that unite us: our common citizenship, shared values, and love for our country. That’s why, as prime minister, I will proudly stand in front of our one national flag.

The difference between a bleak future and a better future comes down to common sense. Common sense can course-correct a country. And this Saturday, I have every confidence that the common sense of Australians will elect a Coalition government to get our country back on track.

Peter Dutton is the Opposition Leader.