When we engage with the community, this is what we hear:
- People are concerned that families even with two incomes often cannot make ends meet. Many families are paying almost 60% of their income towards a home mortgage. Energy prices have shot sky-high over the past 10 years. People are concerned that they will be taxed heavily to pay back the huge mountain of debt that the Liberal Party has accumulated.
- People have seen the negligence of the major parties towards Australia’s defence and are concerned about national security in the face of increasing threats.
- Many people want workplaces of the kind they had in the past, in which they were engaged for life with a purpose, not temporary contractors.
- People want to consume safe food that is produced in Australia. Australia is surrounded by the seas so why do we need to import seafood?
- People are concerned about Australia’s loss of manufacturing capacity, so we drive foreign cars and are forced to rely on offshore supply chains which have failed us, particularly during the past two years. Likewise, people believe that we have failed to add value to the resources we dig out of the ground. And that we do not refine our own fuel and are dependent on ships from Singapore.
- People are concerned about the displacement of small businesses by big retailers, with small domestic suppliers being forced against the wall during price negotiations. Small business is everywhere on the back foot.
- And while people mostly agree that skilled migrants add great value to Australia (and cultural diversity), they worry that our own disadvantaged communities are not receiving the opportunity to develop marketable skills. Excessive migration is a concern: and the need to use our own resources more productively.
AFP is committed to listening these and all other concerns of the People and jointly formulating solutions that work for all of us.