Out of control government spending, destructive energy policies, red tape and high taxes are destroying families’ living standards and cruelling our kids’ future.

Economic news this past week further confirms the government-induced cost of living crisis that is hitting family budgets hard.

Despite what Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers tell us, our free-falling living standards have very little to do with global factors like the Ukraine war.

The financial pain being experienced by mums and dads in the suburbs has everything to do with our governments squandering Australia’s rich endowment of natural resources and being hell-bent on restricting private sector growth.

Take spending. Every economist knows nothing fuels inflation more than governments borrowing money to give people free stuff.

It is like petrol on a dumpster fire. This makes Treasurer Jim Chalmers an arsonist.

This week news broke that “federal government spending hit a record 12.3 per cent of nominal GDP in September”.

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When families are being slugged high interest rates because the Reserve Bank needs to bring inflation under control, why is federal government spending at a record high?

Every voter should be asking this question.

This at a time where Commonwealth debt is on track to hit $1 trillion and state government debt also out of control, particularly in Victoria and Queensland.

Alarm bells about Australia’s dire economic state were rung this week by respected economist Dr Chris Richardson of Deloitte Access Economics and by the consulting firm McKinsey.

Deloitte reported: “Canberra will post a $33.5bn fiscal deficit this year, some $5bn more than Treasury forecast only a few months ago.”

Forget what Chalmers says about his back-to-back surpluses, he’s blown the budget and there are deficits based on current spending levels projected for the next 10 years.

NDIS spending, despite attempts to reign it in, is out of control as is aged care spending.

Both are of course worthy and needy areas of government aid.

But when the private sector and households are being taxed to death and business faces so much red, green and black tape our non-existent economic productivity means we can no longer pay for generous welfare.

With China conducting the biggest military build-up in history, our defence spending is pitiful and we are unable to mount any meaningful defence of our nation.

The biggest hand brake on the economy is the so-called energy transition which is mandating taxpayer-subsidised windmills and solar factories dispersed across the Australian landscape to replace cheap and reliable sources of electricity generation in centralised locations.

Industry can’t function on expensive electricity and more families in the suburbs than ever are defaulting on their power bills.

In resource-rich Australia, this is a failure of our politicians of monumental proportions.

They lecture us on “climate catastrophe” while exporting coal we are not allowed to use for the benefit of our people.

It’s nuts.

McKinsey says our federal and state governments are killing the golden goose of economic productivity which has underpinned our prosperity in the 30 years pre-pandemic.

Bracket creep on middle income earners, some of the highest company tax rates in the world, the “energy transition” and out of control government spending are the culprits.

Our problems are the fault of governments who think they can keep bribing us with free stuff which is paid for on a public credit card.

Johannes Leak’s cartoon in today’s Australian says it all.

Albanese and Chalmers promised to cut electricity bills by $275. Instead, they have gone up by $1000.

Panicking, they shovelled out a $300 rebate. This is like using your already maxed-out credit card to pay off some of your already unaffordable power bill.

With an election looming, Albanese and Chalmers have no intention of putting forward policies to chart a way out of the economic mess they (and in fairness the previous Morrison government) created.

They launched their re-election pitch with another debt-funded bribe – this time to young people by way of a student debt write-off.

And more petrol will be promised for the inflation dumpster fire with a universal child-care policy mooted as their signature re-election pitch.

We all love free stuff but no serious economist believes Australia can afford it.

As citizens and voters we have taken our eye off the ball as our politicians have spent up big, creating a massive debt bomb which will slowly detonate in the faces of our kids.

This is an act of bastardry known as intergenerational theft.

For a generation whose political leaders have also made home ownership unaffordable for the first time in the post-war era, resentment will only build amongst the young.

Family First is re-building as a partisan political movement to challenge the unsustainable spending agendas of the major parties.

Cutting power prices by prioritising affordable and reliable energy, getting budgets under control and making home ownership possible again are key economic priorities for Family First.

Senate candidates supported by lower house candidates will be running in South Australia, Victoria, the ACT, NSW and Queensland at the up-coming federal election.

ACTION: Join the fight for responsible economic management. Join the Family First Party today.