Friends, it’s great to be back in Victoria.
I’ll repeat what I’ve said before – the Liberal Party, at a state and federal level, is back in town!
To our incredible members, volunteers, candidates, and state and federal MPs – I thank you all for your energy and commitment.
To my wonderful deputy, Sussan Ley – we entered the federal parliament on the same day. And I thank you, Sussan, for your outstanding work – and all you do for our party.
To David Littleproud – our Coalition has never been stronger. You’re a superb leader of the Nationals and I’m delighted you’re here today.
I commend the brilliant Katie Allen – who I have every confidence will be the next member for Chisholm.
If we win Chisholm, we’re a step closer to winning government.
And if we win government, we can get Victoria and our country moving again.
Friends, it’s a new year and it’s an important one for our nation.
This year, Australians will have an opportunity to remove a weak and incompetent Labor Government that has sent our country backwards.
This year, Australians will have an opportunity to elect a new and strong Coalition Government to get our country back on track.
There’s a saying, “oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them.”
Yes, governments lose elections.
But oppositions can – and do – win elections.
Provided people know what they stand for.
Provided people understand their plan and vision to better the country.
And provided people recognise the values, experience and character of the alternative Prime Minister.
I want no Australian to be left wondering what the Coalition stands for.
So today, I will outline our key priorities to get Australia back on track.
But with this being my first speech of the year, I’ll start by reminding Australians of who I am, where I’m from, what I’ve done, and what I believe in.
I was born into an outer suburbs working-class family.
Mum and Dad – a secretary and bricklayer – didn’t have much money, but they worked hard every day – and raised their five children with love, support, and a strong work ethic.
From Grade 7 through to university, I threw newspapers, had a lawn mowing run, and worked in a butcher’s shop after school and on Saturdays.
I saved diligently to afford a house deposit.
Buying my first home aged 19 was one of my proudest achievements.
In that butcher’s shop job – and in my Dad’s building business – I saw the hard work required to run a small business.
That experience equipped me later in life with the mindset to run my own successful small business that employed 40 people.
I completed a Business degree and was a Queensland Police Officer for nine years.
I first worked in uniform responding to some terrible incidents – like violent domestics, fatal motor vehicle accidents and suicides.
But I also saw the wonderful side of society – of people willing to help others in their darkest hour.
I then became an investigator of organised crime, drug trafficking and sex offenders.
With all I saw, the protection of women and children is something that continues to drive me today.
My time in law enforcement made me appreciate – all the more – the importance of stable families and safe communities.
The roles I hold most dear are those of husband to Kirilly – to whom I’ve been married for 21 years – and father to Rebecca, Harry and Tom.
My greatest privilege has been to serve my community and fellow Australians as the Member for Dickson.
I’ve been in Parliament for 23 years.
I’ve seen seven prime ministers in action, served under four, and learnt from observing all.
Being a minister – including in cabinet – was an honour.
As Peter Costello’s Assistant Treasurer, I helped make Australia’s tax system fairer and reduced red tape for businesses.
As Health Minister, I created the $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund and increased hospital funding.
Indeed, bulk billing was 84 per cent under me compared to 77 per cent today.
As Immigration Minister, I kept the people smugglers out of business.
I removed all children from detention.
And I resettled 4,000 vulnerable Yazidis – especially women and children – who have new lives in Australia, free from Islamic State’s barbarism.
Unlike the current government, we undertook thorough character and security checks.
As the inaugural Home Affairs Minister, I brought together law enforcement and intelligence agencies to make our nation safer.
I created the world class Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
As Defence Minister, I delivered record funding for our men and women in uniform.
I played a pivotal role in establishing AUKUS.
And I laid the foundations for our missile enterprise.
As the Leader of the Opposition for the last three years, I’m proud of what my team has accomplished.
We’re united.
We’ve done the hard yards in developing policies.
And we’ve engaged in a civilised battle of ideas.
Our prosecution of the ‘No’ case helped defeat our nation’s most divisive referendum.
We halted Labor’s Orwellian Misinformation Bill – which will never be resurrected under a government I lead.
With Labor acting like an opposition in government, we’ve acted like a government in opposition – especially in cleaning up their immigration shambles.
And with moral courage and clarity, we’ve fought back against the antisemitism afflicting Australia.
Across the country, I’ve met so many Australians from all walks of life.
People have got to know me and what I stand for.
I believe the family is the most important unit in society.
Strong and supported families make for a confident and resilient country.
I believe we must preserve the innocence of childhood and nurture young minds in a responsible way.
I believe in egalitarianism; in judging people by the content of their character; and in pushing back on identity politics.
I believe in individual freedom and the rule of law.
I believe the main sources of enterprise and wealth creation are businesses and industries – not governments.
Australians are best served by smaller government which gets off their back, supports free enterprise, and rips up regulation.
But government does have a role to play in getting the big things right.
Managing the economy responsibly.
Ensuring our nation is secure and self-reliant.
Nurturing unity based on shared values and common sense.
And looking after citizens who are dealing with difficulty through no fault of their own.
I love our country.
I cherish what our forebears have gifted us.
Especially those who served in uniform, suffered, and made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, for freedom, and for the greater good.
I admire Australians.
We’re a remarkable people – compassionate, stoic, fair and quietly patriotic.
But under this Albanese Labor Government, I’ve seen the mood of Australians change.
Australians have endured one of the most incompetent governments in our nation’s history.
They’ve suffered under one of our country’s weakest ever prime ministers.
The last three years have been a litany of bad decisions and broken promises.
As a result, Australians are worse off.
Our country is less safe.
Our society is less cohesive.
For so many Australians, aspiration has been replaced by anxiety.
Optimism has turned to pessimism.
And national confidence changed to dispiritedness.
Mr Albanese says, “This election is about the future versus the past.”
I think the past three years are a good indication of what the future will look like under a returned Labor Government.
That’s a future Australians can’t afford.
Especially if the green-Teals or extreme-Greens hold the balance of power.
During my time in Parliament, here’s a key thing I’ve observed:
When a government gets its priorities wrong, things go wrong for the Australian people.
The Albanese Government has had the wrong priorities.
It’s prioritised the agendas of inner-city Greens voters, activists, and union bosses.
It’s disregarded everyday Australian workers, families and small businesses – from city suburbs to regional towns to coastal communities.
Just like those here in this Labor-held seat of Chisholm.
It’s sidelined known industry winners – miners, manufacturers, fishers, foresters, and farmers – and picked its own winners.
It’s built bigger government to exert more power, instead of creating better government to empower citizens.
Labor will double-down on its priorities and positions if it wins the next election.
Weak leaders create hard times – but strong leaders create better times.
And the next federal election is a sliding doors moment for our nation.
A returned Labor government – in majority or minority – will see setbacks set in stone.
A newly elected Coalition Government is a last chance to reverse the decline.
Mr Albanese – who loves fighting Tories and who always plays the man and not the ball – has characterised this election as a “future war”.
For him, what matters most is the political victory.
Whereas I want our country to be victorious.
I want Australia to emerge out of Labor’s cost-of-living crisis.
I want future generations of Australians to not be denied the prosperity that previous generations of Australians knew.
The path to better times and a better country starts with having the right priorities.
With the right priorities, you create the right policies. And with the right policies, things go right for the Australian people.
Today, I’m pleased to launch our publication called:
Let’s Get Australia Back On Track: The priorities of a Dutton Coalition Government.
After outlining our priorities today, we will announce new policies in the days and weeks ahead to complement the many we’ve already announced.
At the last election – despite the pandemic – the Coalition handed over a strong economic position to Labor.
On almost every economic measure, Australia was either world-leading or performed
better than most countries.
Our debt was lower than any other major advanced economy.
But in less than three years, Labor has been a wrecking ball through the economy.
The Government has pulled every wrong lever since coming to power.
Spending has lifted by a staggering $347 billion.
Personal income taxes paid have increased by 22 per cent.
The enterprise and productivity of business and industry has been suffocated by government intervention and regulation.
The cost of electricity has skyrocketed under a reckless renewables-only policy.
Consequently, we’re in a right mess.
There’s no end in sight to Labor’s cost-of-living crisis.
Under Labor, interest rates have gone up 12 times.
Repeatedly, the RBA Governor has said that inflation is now homegrown – with the Government’s rapid spending growth a major cause.
Households have now been in recession for seven consecutive quarters.
Australians are living through the worst collapse in living standards on record.
Everything is costing more – food, rents, mortgages, power and insurance.
More than 26,000 businesses have gone insolvent.
Australia’s core inflation remains one of the highest in the G20 nations.
Our country is facing more Labor deficits.
To clean up this mess, here’s some key priorities of a Dutton Coalition Government:
We will fight cost-of-living pressures.
We will build a stronger economy.
And we will cut government waste.
Let me be clear:
Government is living beyond its means.
It’s spending what it can’t afford.
I know Australians are hurting.
I know things like energy bill rebates and student debt subsidies help, but while providing temporary relief, such expenditure doesn’t address the underlying problems – it just masks them.
When government overspends, interest rates and inflation stay higher for longer.
Inflation makes each dollar you earn buy less.
Inflation reduces the purchasing power of your paycheque.
We can only escape the clutches of the cost-of-living crisis by reining-in inflationary spending.
The expensive Panadol policies must stop.
The necessary economic surgery to stop wasteful spending must start.
And that’s what a Coalition government will do.
Of course, there’s key areas where we need to spend taxpayer money.
Defence, health, the NDIS and aged-care – to name a few.
But taxpayer money must be spent prudently – especially in hard times.
Wherever possible, a dollar spent should create new dollars.
The aim should always be to spend taxpayer money where it has an economic multiplying effect, generates productivity, and can attract new investment.
Infrastructure, resources and agriculture projects are good examples.
As is AUKUS – with its potential to foster a new arm of our economy.
I’m in the game of ending government waste.
Here’s just a few examples of Labor’s indulgences:
Almost $500 million on a divisive referendum.
Billions to subsidise uncommercial projects – like green hydrogen or the world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computer.
$600,000 for a speechwriter.
$450,000 for Welcome to Country ceremonies.
I ask this question of Australians:
Has your life been improved by Labor hiring an extra 36,000 public servants – costing $6 billion a year?
Of course it hasn’t.
We will end government waste and get back to doing things which help Australians.
A Dutton Coalition Government will deliver lower, simpler, fairer taxes.
Australians should keep more of what they earn.
And we will protect Australians’ retirement savings from unfair new taxes.
Your super is your money – not the government’s.
We know Australians are hurting at the checkout.
And we’ve committed to deterring the big supermarkets from undermining competition and ripping off customers and farmers.
Central to re-energising the economy is ripping-up as much red and green tape as possible.
For example, we will defund the Environmental Defenders Office.
And we will slash resource approval timeframes in half.
When more excavators dig, when more trucks move, when more gas flows, there’s more tax revenues and royalties.
And that means more money for infrastructure, the NDIS, aged care and defence.
To unleash the potential of the marketplace, another priority of a Dutton Coalition Government is to back small business.
We will increase the instant asset write-off to $30,000 and make this arrangement ongoing.
We will revert to a simple definition of a casual worker.
And we will curtail union militancy in workplaces.
More than anything else, exorbitant energy costs are causing inflation across the economy.
Food, goods and services are all costing more.
Thanks to Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen’s renewables-only policy trainwreck, Australians are paying some of the highest power prices in the world.
Your electricity bill hasn’t come down by $275 as Labor promised.
Australians are paying up to $1,000 more than Labor promised.
Our grid is unstable.
Australians are being asked to ration power and warned about blackouts.
Manufacturers have moved offshore where energy is cheaper.
You can’t run a full-time and functioning economy using part-time and unreliable power.
As such, a further priority of a Dutton Coalition Government is to deliver affordable and reliable energy.
More immediately, we will ramp-up domestic gas production to get power prices down and restore stability to our grid.
Over the longer term, we will place the latest zero emission nuclear technologies on the sites of seven retiring coal-fired power plants.
We will have a balanced energy mix of renewables, gas, and ultimately nuclear to replace coal.
The independent and respected Frontier Economics costed our plan.
It’s 44 per cent cheaper than Labor’s renewables-only plan through to 2050 – a saving of $263 billion to Australians.
Labor will continue to carpet prime agricultural land, national parks, and coastlines with industrial-scale renewables.
We will preserve our environment.
Nuclear power allows us to maximise the highest yield of energy per square metre and minimise our environmental footprint.
The Coalition’s push to have Australia join the growing league of nuclear-powered nations is one of the most visionary policies put forward in our country’s history.
It’s time to dispense with short-termism and shore-up our energy security for generations to come.
Just as energy is a major concern for Australians, so too are migration and housing.
Rebalancing our migration program and fixing the housing crisis are also priorities for a Dutton Coalition Government.
Labor has opened the migration floodgates.
A record one million migrants have arrived in Labor’s first two years.
That’s 70 per cent more than in any previous two-year period.
It’s put pressure on housing, infrastructure and services.
With only 350,000 homes built over the same period, demand has far outstripped supply.
The Coalition will take action.
We will impose a two-year ban on foreign investors and temporary residents purchasing existing Australian homes.
We will reduce the permanent migration program by 25 per cent for two years – from 185,000 to 140,000 places.
In years three and four, we will return to a sustainable 150,000 and 160,000 places.
And we will work with major metropolitan universities to set stricter caps on foreign students to relieve stress on city rental markets.
Using these levers, we will free up more than 100,000 homes over five years.
We will also get new homes built.
We’ve committed $5 billion to support the building of essential infrastructure for new housing – like water, power, sewerage and access roads.
This funding will get stalled projects off the ground.
And we’re confident we can unlock up to 500,000 homes.
An issue close to my heart is restoring the dream of home ownership.
Today, home ownership is beyond reach for too many.
Entering the property market shouldn’t be limited to those who can rely on the bank of mum and dad.
That’s why a Coalition Government will allow Australians to access up to $50,000 of their super to buy their first home.
And we will extend that policy to assist separated women.
If home ownership is important to Australians, so is their health.
Another priority of a Dutton Coalition Government is to deliver quality healthcare.
The Albanese Government paints itself as our health system saviour.
But bulk billing has fallen from 88 per cent when we were in government to 77 per cent under Labor.
Free GP services have decreased by 40 million.
And we’re facing a shortfall of 8,000 GPs by 2031.
A Coalition Government will grow our GP workforce.
We will incentivise junior doctors to train in general practice to help fill shortages in suburbs and regional areas.
Our review of the Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Schemes will result in cheaper and new medicines for women.
And we will restore the number of Medicare-subsidised psychological sessions from 10 to 20 – and on a permanent basis.
Labor is again resorting to a Medi-scare campaign – it’s third attempt in less than a decade.
I stress today, the Coalition will guarantee the growing funding of Medicare.
We will also not neglect disadvantaged Indigenous Australians.
Labor has lost its energy to address this issue.
But with the defeat of the Voice, we have an opportunity to move away from symbolic gestures, activist-driven agendas, and more Canberra-based bureaucracy
We can press ahead with a Dutton Coalition Government’s priority to focus on practical action for Indigenous Australians.
As Jacinta Price said, it’s time to dispense with the racial stereotyping which treats all Aboriginal people the same.
There are communities where safety, housing, health, education and employment are critical issues.
That’s where our efforts must be targeted.
We will start with a full audit into spending on Indigenous programs.
And in Indigenous communities where drugs and alcohol are prevalent, we will reintroduce the Cashless Debit Card for working-aged welfare recipients in consultation with communities, to make sure children are getting the support from their parents that they deserve.
We will bolster law and order in crime-heavy communities.
And we will hold a Royal Commission into Sexual Abuse in Indigenous Communities.
If Labor has neglected disadvantaged Indigenous Australians, it has treated regional Australians like second-class citizens.
Chris Bowen has steamrolled over regional communities with his industrial-scale renewables roll-out.
Tanya Plibersek and Murray Watt have stymied new mines, gas projects, live sheep exports and salmon farming – the lifeblood of regional Australia.
Jim Chalmers has cut billions from regional infrastructure projects.
Anthony Albanese flies in for the photo op, utters soothing words, only to deliver a different message to a city audience.
Whereas a priority for a Dutton Coalition Government is to grow a stronger Regional Australia.
I want to make our nation a mining, agricultural and manufacturing powerhouse again.
Regional Australia is at the centre of that vision.
And that’s why we will invest in regional roads, services and healthcare.
An activist-led Labor has turned its back on industries which are our natural strengths.
I won’t because they’re still important – alongside new areas of the economy, like artificial intelligence and automation.
Just as we want a resilient regional Australia, we want communities to be resilient across Australia.
Another priority for a Dutton Coalition Government is to build strong and sustainable communities.
That means many things.
It means seeing children taught the basics – reading, writing and maths – through explicit instruction across our primary education system – and ensuring classrooms are places of education, not indoctrination.
It means restricting social media for under 16s given the impacts of harmful content and constant connectivity on young minds – while ensuring age verification in no way compromises individual privacy.
It means providing families with affordable child-care.
It means guaranteeing NDIS support to Australians with permanent and significant disability.
It means funding an aged-care system where older Australians have the dignity, respect and assistance they deserve.
It means cherishing and looking after all our veterans – especially those who have suffered due to their service.
And it means reviving our unity – by nurturing pride in our country, celebrating the achievement of modern Australia, standing up for our values, and coming together under our one flag.
Strong communities are important – and so is a secure nation.
Keeping Australians safe is another key priority of a Dutton Coalition Government.
The Albanese Labor Government has failed in this duty.
More than 280 hardcore criminals – including murderers and sex offenders – were released from immigration detention into the community by the Government.
Some 65 criminals have already reoffended.
Negligently, the Government granted tourist visas to 3,000 people from a terrorist-controlled war zone without conducting thorough checks.
People smugglers were again given the green-light when Labor dismantled Operation Sovereign Borders.
Almost 500 people have tried to enter our country illegally on 26 boats – of which seven have reached Australia.
Youth crime has surged around the country.
Last year alone, some 78 women tragically lost their lives in violent circumstances.
And shockingly, antisemitism has surged by more than 700 per cent.
Every incident of antisemitism can be traced back to the Prime Minister’s dereliction of leadership in response to the sordid events on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
Antisemitism should have been stopped there and then.
This Government is so morally confused it treats our ally, Israel, like an adversary.
Moreover, its push for Palestinian statehood at this time would reward Hamas’s use of terrorism to achieve political ends.
And despite wars in the Middle East and Eastern Europe – and tensions in our region – the government has reduced defence spending to under 2 per cent of GDP – and our defence bureaucracy is operating on a business-as-usual basis.
A Dutton Coalition Government will make a significant investment in defence.
We will equip our military at speed and scale to play our part as a credible partner in promoting peace through strength.
And in the first days of a Coalition Government, I will call the Prime Minister of Israel to mend the relationship that Labor has trashed.
We stopped the boats before – and will do so again.
I cancelled more than 6,300 visas of dangerous non-citizen criminals – and we will not hesitate to cancel visas again too.
If you’re a guest in our country inciting or committing violence, you will be kicked out.
And if you’re doing the same as a citizen, you will feel the full force of the law.
A Dutton Coalition Government will develop national uniform knife laws, toughen bail laws, and introduce tougher penalties to prevent coercive control.
Most importantly, we will provide the moral and political leadership needed to restore law, order and justice.
In closing, the priorities I’ve outlined today are our compact with Australians.
We will govern with respect for the views, values and vision of everyday Australians.
Soon, Australians will again have a say in determining the future of our great country.
When they do, they will be under no misapprehension as to what a Dutton Coalition Government stands for – and what we plan to do.
In that knowledge, I hope Australians will recognise that a Coalition Government is the only chance to get our country back on track.
Thank you.