BIGGEST ELECTION ISSUE IS COST OF LIVING : Alan Jones

One has to wonder who is advising the Prime Minister.

He was under siege the other day for a photo opportunity in the Labor-held seat of Dunkley washing the hair of a woman in a local hair salon, which prompted the aggressive and mostly offensive Queensland Deputy Premier, Steven Miles, to say “Maybe he could volunteer at one of the nursing homes unable to bathe residents because of a COVID outbreak… so he can now hold a hose.”

In what has been a difficult political environment for any leader, the Prime Minister will be criticised for Australians dying because of bungled delays of vaccines and RATs.

It is undeniable that medical staff are exhausted, and the crisis in health care and small business is not so much from the virus, but from staff absences.

But when individuals face all of these issues, the one thing they can’t overcome is the cost of living.

Admittedly, some of these things are the responsibility of state governments; but the voter doesn’t differentiate.

The voter just sees everything increasing in cost, whether it be childcare fees, health insurance, motor vehicle registration, tolls, the price of a beer – the list is endless.

But amongst all of this, the predominant issue feeding into the escalation in the cost of living is the cost of energy, in particular petrol.

There is scarcely anything we deal with everyday where the cost of energy isn’t factored into the cost of consumer prices.

Getting stuff into supermarkets, trucks and fuel.

Getting produce to small business, trucks and fuel.

Getting the removalist, trucks and fuel.

Driving the kids to school and picking them up, a car and fuel.

To say nothing of the inescapable cost, where public transport is not available, of people getting to work.

Petrol prices, which are heading towards $2 a litre, is a huge issue.

The price of petrol includes a Commonwealth tax by the fancy name of a fuel excise. And you pay a GST on top of that.

The fuel excise automatically goes up each year, automatic, which is now 44.2c a litre.

In other words, the Government loves petrol prices going up because the latest increase nets the Government between $100 and $150 million.

Indeed, the fuel excise is one of the nation’s biggest indirect taxes.

For this financial year, it is estimated to raise $5.65 billion, the next financial year, $6.3 billion, and by 2024/25 $7.15 billion.

Economists talk about the inflation rate driven by higher prices; and there has been a 3.5 per cent rise in consumer price inflation in the 12 months to December.

Unsurprisingly, higher petrol prices have contributed massively.

In the last 3 months alone, fuel costs were up 6.6 per cent; in the last 12 months, over 32 per cent at a time when households are spending a record amount on petrol.

This is the biggest election issue, called simply, cost of living.

The Shadow Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, keeps referring to the, “skyrocketing costs of living,” including petrol prices and rent.

But if Chalmers and Labor want to win an election, they had first better understand that this is the major issue, and then explain, coherently, what they can do about it.

Spin, rhetoric and criticising the Government won’t do.

Scott Morrison has to forget firing at a million targets.

He needs a repeated focus on the cost of living to voters and he needs to demonstrate how the life of the voter would be better off under a Coalition Government.

It is a big challenge.

But if you want to stay in government, you have to be able to answer, believably, the big questions.

BIGGEST ELECTION ISSUE IS COST OF LIVING : Alan Jones

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