A Government That Has Failed Australians - Enough Is Enough

A convicted ISIS terrorist is back on Australian streets. And Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke did not even apply to a court to keep him behind bars. If you want to know just how weak, incompetent and dangerously complacent this Labor Government has become, look no further.

Iaaac El Mataram is a convicted terrorise and a self-declared ISIS commander. A man who embraced an ideology of hatred, violence and terror - an ideology fundamentally opposed to everything Australia stands for.

And what did the Albanese Government do when it had the opportunity to seek his continued detention? Absolutely nothing. No application for a Continuing Detention Order. No attempt to have a court determine whether he should remain behind bars.

Well done, Albanese. Well done, Burke. What an extraordinary disgrace.

After the horror of Bondi, after innocent Australians were murdered by terrorists, you would think this Government might finally have understood that protecting Australians is not optional.

Apparently not.

Tony Burke now offers excuses about why the Government could not meet the legal threshold. But he did not even put the case before a judge. Australians are entitled to ask one very simple question: why didn't this Government exhaust every lawful avenue to keep a convicted ISIS terrorist off our streets?

This is not leadership. This is an abject failure of judgment. Our national security is not a political inconvenience. Our Australian values are not negotiable. And the safety of Australian families should never come second to this Government's excuses.

Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke should hang their heads in shame. A Government that fails to put the safety of Australians first has failed the most basic test of government. And it is time for them to go. And unfortunately, the failures do not end with national security.

Tomorrow, Australian families could be hit with yet another interest rate rise. Inflation has climbed to 4.3 per cent, well above the Reserve Bank's target. If rates rise tomorrow, it will be the 17th interest rate increase under Labor. Remember when Anthony Albanese declared that his Government had dealt with inflation? Remember when Jim Chalmers claimed the worst of the inflation challenge was well and truly behind us?

Well, try telling that to Australian families struggling to pay their mortgages, pensioners watching their grocery bills climb, or small businesses fighting to keep their doors open.

If only Australians could pay their mortgages with Albanese's and Chalmers' excuses.

Government spending is at its highest level in 40 years outside the pandemic, and Labor still refuses to exercise meaningful restraint. Labor cannot escape responsibility for its own economic decisions. Anthony Albanese has lost control of spending. Jim Chalmers has failed to contain inflation. And Australian families are paying the price.

Meanwhile, the devastation facing Australian small businesses is becoming impossible to ignore. New insolvency figures show that 5,577 businesses collapsed between June and September this year – around 46 businesses every single day.

Since Labor came to office, more than 52,000 businesses have entered insolvency. These are not just numbers on a spreadsheet. They represent families losing everything they have worked for. Employees losing their jobs. Australians who took a risk, backed themselves and built something from nothing watching their dreams disappear.

And what is Labor's response? More taxes. More regulation. More red tape.

Its latest assault on family trusts threatens to impose billions of dollars in additional costs on family businesses already struggling with soaring energy bills, rising insurance premiums and higher interest rates.

You cannot fix the economy by taxing the people who keep it running.

The housing crisis is another damning indictment of Labor's incompetence.

Australia is completing around 173,000 homes a year against the roughly 240,000 needed to meet Labor's own housing target. Rents have risen around 24 per cent since Labor came to office, while wages have grown considerably less. Young Australians are watching the dream of home ownership disappear before their eyes. Fewer homes. Higher rents. Bigger mortgages. That is Labor's housing record. And now Labor wants to make matters worse with more taxes that threaten housing investment and construction.

But there is a better way.

Under Angus Taylor's leadership, the Liberals and Nationals are doing the serious policy work required to fix our economy and protect our way of life.

We have already identified $31 billion in responsible Budget savings, targeting wasteful spending, corporate welfare and Labor's expanding bureaucracy. These savings will help fund our Tax Back Guarantee, delivering tax relief while improving the Budget.

We will back small businesses, scrap Labor's damaging taxes, cut unnecessary red tape and restore respect for the Australians who work hard, invest and create jobs.

We will deliver cheaper, more reliable energy by ending Labor's failed Net Zero approach and unlocking Australia's enormous energy resources.

We will reduce migration to sustainable levels, get more homes built and restore the opportunity for young Australians to own a home.

And unlike Labor, we will never forget that the first responsibility of any Australian Government is to keep Australians safe. Because the role of government is not to make excuses. It is to make decisions. Accept responsibility. Protect our citizens. Defend our freedoms. And create the conditions in which Australians can prosper. That is the difference between Labor and the Coalition.

Anthony Albanese talks about keeping Australians safe while his Government declines to seek the continued detention of a convicted ISIS terrorist. He talks about helping families while his Government presides over relentless cost-of-living pressures. He talks about economic responsibility while his Treasurer oversees soaring spending, stubborn inflation and mounting debt.

Australians are paying a terrible price for this Government's incompetence. But I remain enormously optimistic about what Australia can achieve with the right leadership. We are a country built on freedom, hard work, individual responsibility, opportunity and the rule of law. Those are the values that built modern Australia. And they are the values the Liberal Party will always defend.

Our task is clear. Restore economic discipline. Rebuild confidence. Defend our freedoms. Protect Australians. And put our country back on track.

We have the leadership. We have the team. And we are building the plan. Now we must take that message to every Australian. Because enough is enough. Australia cannot afford more of Albanese's failures, more of Chalmers' excuses or more of Labor's incompetence. Australians deserve a government that will fight for them, not continually fail them.