Peta Credlin: Ignore the bribes and remember how Albo has made tough times worse

The Prime Minister will use the budget to try to bribe his way back to office but stop and consider everything that’s going wrong and how the government is making it worse, writes Peta Credlin.

Make no mistake, the Prime Minister will use this week’s budget to try to bribe his way back to office.

One of the most recent handouts is the reduced co-payment for PBS drugs, coming on top of $40 billion of unfunded new spending that had already been announced since early January.

Add to this rolling over the energy rebate that’s only needed because the government’s climate obsession has artificially inflated power prices. It’s typical of the Albanese government that it’s bribing you with your own money to address a pain in the pocket that it has created in the first place.

Poll after poll shows that people think our country is headed in the wrong direction, that the government does not deserve to be re-elected, and that the PM is weak and out of his depth. Unfortunately, as the polls stand, the likely election outcome is a Labor minority government dependent on the Greens and the Teals; which means an even worse government next term than this one, with even more spending, regulating and taxing, and a failure to address any of the key issues that are holding our country back.

Just stop for a moment and consider everything that’s going wrong and all the ways the Albanese government is making it worse.

Australians have suffered an average 9 per cent fall in their standard of living since 2022. Picture: iStock

First, cost of living. Australians have suffered an average 9 per cent fall in their standard of living since 2022, largely due to rising mortgage and power costs plus higher taxation. This is the biggest drop of any OECD country. And, while the government endlessly repeats that the sun and the wind don’t send you a bill, the power companies certainly do in order to cover the cost of new wind and solar infrastructure, the cost of the new transmission lines needed for a decentralised grid, and the cost of the batteries and gas “peakers” needed to keep the lights on when the wind won’t blow and the sun won’t shine.

As well, interest rates have gone up further than they needed to because the government’s spending addiction has fuelled inflation. Then there’s the higher housing costs and lower wage levels flowing from the government’s inability to rein-in record migration running at close to half a million newcomers a year.

As well as the government’s spending addiction fuelling inflation, there’s the higher housing costs and lower wage levels flowing from the government’s inability to rein-in record migration. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

The government blames two years of falling GDP per person on factors beyond its control like the Ukraine war; but that war had well and truly broken out when the government kept reiterating its broken promise to cut power bills by $275 per household per year.

Then there’s the government’s attack on productivity via successive law changes to boost union power. Even last week, more allegations of CFMEU corruption plaguing government building sites in Victoria and still the ALP rakes in millions in donations. As well, taxpayers funding green organisations seemingly using lawfare to stop almost all new resource developments is madness.

Second, social cohesion. Almost the first act of the Albanese government was to create, in effect, three national flags, by elevating the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander flags to equal status with the one and only national flag representing all of us. Then there’s the devaluing of Australia Day, which is currently not celebrated by some 80 Labor and Green-controlled local councils. And the reckless importation of foreign hatreds via the almost incomprehensible recklessness of issuing 3000 tourist visas to people from Hamas-controlled Gaza. Plus its total failure to crack down on rampant anti-Semitism by deporting or prosecuting hate preachers. Plus its tacit encouragement of Jew hatred by consistently voting against Israel at the UN.

The government has given tacit encouragement of Jew hatred by consistently voting against Israel at the UN. Picture: NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

Third, national security. Current defence spending under Labor has again dropped below 2 per cent of GDP at a time when other nations like the UK are ramping up. How shameful was it that the only ship available to shadow the recent Chinese task force after its live-fire shooting was a New Zealand one.

Then there’s the government’s hand-wringing impotence in the face of foreign criminals that it can’t readily deport and special powers it demanded in emergency parliamentary sittings in November 2023 that it still has never used!

At a time when numerous businesses can’t get reliable staff, there’s still almost a million working age Australians on unemployment benefits; and the disability bill is exploding thanks to an NDIS that’s become a gravy train for dodgy businesses as well as a racket for people whose disabilities are relatively modest and should be helped into productive work, not left on welfare.

There is not the slightest chance that a re-elected Albanese government will tackle any of these issues. Indeed, it’s certain that there will be more economic stagnation, zero major new developments, more welfare rorting and even less military preparedness if – as currently likely – the PM finds himself pandering post-election to the Greens and the Teals as well as his own innate Leftist instincts. Does anyone really think a weak man like Albanese is going to stand up to the Greens?

This is where Budget week is critical for the Opposition too. Voters have decided that the Albanese government is not up to the job.

What they haven’t yet worked out is whether the Dutton-led Opposition would be sufficiently better to be worthy of their vote. The budget speech will be a drearily predictable spendathon.

The real interest this week will be Peter Dutton’s Thursday evening nationally-televised response, which needs to be the speech of his life.

THUMBS UP

Australian boss of Mitsubishi Shane Westcott for demanding Chris Bowen rethink his emissions targets saying: “We have car yards of EVs that people just do not want to buy.”

THUMBS DOWN

The Reserve Bank for replacing the late Queen’s image on the $5 note with an Indigenous artwork. Now no banknote shows a link to the Crown. This is Labor running its Republic agenda by stealth.

Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm