Australia’s Living Standards Decline

Throughout my entire time in the Senate, I’ve consistently spoken on the need to restore Australia’s productive capacity through the construction of new infrastructure.

It’s a simple metric: the living standard of each Australian is expressed as our gross domestic product divided by the population. With 5 million new Australians in the last 10 years – 2.5 million under this Labor government – our gross domestic product is being split into more slices for the new arrivals faster than it is growing.

As a result, the standard of living for individual Australians is going backwards and has fallen by 8% since Labor took over. Did anyone hear Prime Minister Albanese promise in his 2022 election campaign to reduce the living standards of everyday Australians by 8%?  I didn’t.

The answer to falling living standards is to reduce immigration.

The Government must also embrace the other side of the equation, which is building new infrastructure to enhance our productive capacity.

This video explains One Nation’s ‘build baby build’ policy, which we are taking to this election.

Transcript

I thank Senator Rennick for this opportunity to speak about One Nation’s policies and note that, in March, his statements and policies are becoming increasingly loaded with One Nation policies that we released earlier the month before, in February. In that, it’s like Labor and the LNP too, who are copying elements of our policies. 

For the entire time I’ve been in this Senate, I’ve spoken on the need to restore Australia’s productive capacity through the construction of new infrastructure. It’s a simple metric: the living standard of each Australian is expressed as our gross domestic product divided by population. With five million new Australians in the last 10 years, 2½ million of those under this Labor government, our gross domestic product is being split into new slices for the new arrivals faster than it’s growing. As a result, the standard of living of individual Australians is going backwards and has fallen by eight per cent since Labor took over. Did anyone hear Prime Minister Albanese promise in his 2022 election pitch to reduce the living standards of everyday Australians by eight per cent? I didn’t. The answer is clearly and certainly to reduce immigration, although the government must embrace the other side of that equation as well, which is building new infrastructure to grow our productive capacity. 

One Nation are taking a platform to this election that includes building a national rail loop to take hundreds of thousands of truck movements off the roads, making freight handling cheaper and more efficient, reducing supermarket prices and making Australia more competitive. That’s vital in a large country with a small population; logistics is tops. Our platform also includes a new northern rail crossing from Port Hedland to Moranbah and the Port of Gladstone in Queensland to open the east Pilbara and the north-west minerals province in Queensland to the international market, facilitating exports worth hundreds of billions of dollars and tens or hundreds of thousands of breadwinner jobs. There’s also a multifunction corridor to take water, power and internet along the new northern crossing railway to bring town services to more than 100 remote communities across the Top End; Hells Gates Dam in Far North Queensland to provide flood mitigation, water security and hydropower; and the Urannah water project and pipeline, amongst others. What will be the source of these funds? There will be $90 billion from cutting waste and duplication, itemised. See our website; it’s fully costed. 

Each year, we will put $40 billion of that back into people’s pockets. For example, couples with children income-splitting will save almost $10,000 a year. It’s fully costed. Each year, we will invest $20 billion in infrastructure to increase productive capacity to increase our children’s wages. Each year, we will pay down record debt of $30 billion, which is estimated to become $50 billion the year after next per year, to reduce interest. Only through building our productive capacity can we hope to provide for the millions of new arrivals, generate new government revenue from increased economic activity and restore wealth and opportunity to all who call this beautiful country home.