As we close out November and head towards the Christmas season, I know many residents in Logan are having to find more and more ways to tighten their belts and cut their household budgets.
The ever-increasing cost-of-living, is an issue I covered earlier this year, but one which shows no signs of easing.
Local residents consistently rank cost of living as their number one issue.
When Labor came to government, they promised they had all the answers to the cost-of-living crisis.
They promised to reduce your energy bills by $275, instead electricity prices have gone up 18 per cent and gas is up 28 per cent.
They promised cheaper mortgages for all Australians, instead we have just seen the 12th rate rise since they were elected.
Interest rates are now at their highest level since 2011 and rents are experiencing their highest increase since 2009.
Inflationary pressures have compounded these increases, with Australians finding their pay checks are not going as far as they were a year ago.
After 18 months of Labor, Australians are worse off.
To compound these, the Reserve Bank Governor has recently confirmed that inflation is being driven by domestic factors, not from overseas.
Inflation is coming from Labor’s bad economic decisions.
It is clear that there is no plan to lower inflation, or address cost-of-living factors and families are struggling to keep up.
This will be a difficult Christmas season for many.
A survey conducted by the Australian HR Institute reports that around a third of employers could be forced to retrench staff in lead up to Christmas and more cuts could be on the way in the new year.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is reporting that more and more Australians have put off visiting their local GP or refilling their prescriptions, due to increasing costs and strains on their household budgets.
Many more households will be forced to make tough decisions on what they can and can’t afford.
There is a real human cost to this economic mismanagement.
The government can and must do more by making the necessary decisions to drive down inflation.
