CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr TED O'BRIEN (Fairfax) (10:24): This country needs a plan, and it needs to be run by a political party that has a plan. The Liberal National Party has a plan, and we're out there communicating with the Australian public about it. We have a plan to lower taxes.

We have a plan for cheaper power. We have a plan for less migration and more homes. We have a plan to have an Australian government that puts the Australian people first.

That's our plan. Our plan, as the Liberal National Party, is to put the Australian people at the centre—to give them hope, to unleash aspiration and to build a country that is worthy not just of those upon whose shoulders we stand today but of the next generation, to ensure tomorrow's Australians will live in an even greater country. We can do that.

We can do that with a united team that we have and a solid plan. This plan is every bit as relevant to the people of the Sunshine Coast as it is to people right across Australia. When it comes to lower taxes, people of the Sunshine Coast right now are hurting.

We might indeed be the lifestyle capital of the country, and we are. But the Sunshine Coast residents are still amidst a cost-of-living crisis, and the only thing that we've seen in the recent budget from the Albanese government is to increase taxes, whether it be on trusts, capital gains or negative gearing—you name it. The Australian people and Sunshine Coast residents do not deserve higher taxes.

Our plan, as a Liberal National Party, is to lower those taxes. Then, when it comes to cheaper power, I've had the great privilege of, in recent weeks, knocking on the doors of small businesses across the electorate of Fairfax. I've had the great privilege of attending multiple chamber of commerce meetings.

I'm talking to businesses that get up every single morning—their owners, their workers—to serve the local community, and they are copping it because of costs. One of those costs is power. It is electricity in particular.

Electricity prices have gone up by 40 per cent, gas, 40 per cent, under this government. Cheaper power will help our small businesses on the Sunshine Coast. That's our plan—less migration and more houses.

If there's any part of Australia that has felt the housing crisis, it is the Sunshine Coast, a beautiful part of the world, and, yet, we have homelessness running out of control. We have longstanding residents having to leave the region because the rents have gone through the roof or they simply cannot afford to buy. That is because this government has driven supply down.

We need to ensure that we actually cap migration to new builds—a sensible plan that we'll deliver. This is how we put Australians first and the people of the Sunshine Coast first.