Letter to the Editor: MP Rick Wilson says O’Connor will weather inflation storm despite cost-of-living stress

This year, it will cost more to host the Christmas lunch, it will cost more to turn on the Christmas lights, and it will cost more to visit family and friends.

There will be fewer gifts around the tree as higher mortgage repayments, higher energy prices and higher grocery prices eat away at people’s disposable income.

The Albanese Labor Government took its eye off the ball and failed to tackle inflation head-on.

As a result, Australians will pay the price this Christmas.

Families in O’Connor are already struggling with the high cost of living, and it is going to be a much tougher Christmas because inflation is still far too high.

For regional families and businesses, inflation is now a homegrown tax on everything.

The Albanese Government must come up with a plan to tackle inflation or else Australians will continue to pay for Labor’s bad decisions.

Charities like FoodBank and the Salvos are seeing more and more dual‑income households come through their doors seeking assistance.

Under Labor’s cost-of-living crisis, two incomes are no longer enough to make ends meet for many families.

The Salvation Army says that 12.8 million Australians are grappling with increased financial stress this year, marking a worrying 10-per-cent surge from the previous year.

O’Connor families tell me they are reaching for cheaper cuts of meat and home-brand items at the supermarket to keep costs down.

Amid the crisis, Federal Labor has delivered 10,000 new public servants, an additional $188 billion in spending, and a failed referendum that cost Australians more than $450 million.

Labor came into power with a hefty wish list of policies.

So far, it appears that Mr Albanese has all the wrong priorities.

Instead of focusing on inflation, his obsession in O’Connor is an ideological ban on the live sheep export trade, which will hit dozens of regional West Australian communities hard.

The WA Labor Government is also complicit.

Its unworkable Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, thankfully ditched in 2023 after industry and community outrage, joined Mr Albanese’s doomed voice referendum and his planned live exports ban in eroding confidence in WA’s pivotal agriculture sector.

This Labor triple-whammy has been a kick in the guts for regional communities that were already reeling under the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

But regional Western Australia is resilient.

Together we will weather the cost-of-living storm.

Rick Wilson is the Federal member for O’Connor.

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