If you’re not going to really do anything about Australia’s cost of living crisis, there’s always the option of putting on a song and dance to pretend you’re concerned about it.

It’s taken the Albanese government the better part of two years to finally acknowledge the cost of living in Australia is a priority. It spent those two years on Labor’s real priorities – handing unions enormous power and imposing a divisive, expensive and failed referendum on the Australian people.

Now, Labor talks about virtually nothing else but the cost of living and the Prime Minister has decided it’s ‘good optics’ to gather his MPs and ministers in Canberra to do more talking about it.

Of course the Prime Minister would gather his ministers for an impromptu caucus – not to address the cost of living (because Labor has no plan), but because votes are at risk. He doesn’t care about Australians struggling with inflation; he only cares about votes.

Expect this week to be full of ‘good optics’: how the Prime Minister will try to look like he is reducing the cost of living, without actually doing a thing. That is the aim, all to sandbag his seats and retain power.

If the Prime Minister was serious about reducing costs, he would start with power prices.

There would be no more taxpayers’ subsidies for inefficient and unreliable solar and wind power. New power plants would be built, using coal, to meet the rising demand for affordable and reliable power. This has long been a One Nation policy.

Fuel excise could be reduced, which is a major contributor to people’s cost of living pressure. One Nation has voted for this measure in the past and will consider it again – cheaper fuel will also mean cheaper groceries and other essentials. 

There would also be an instant reduction in immigration, which is fueling most of the inflation as well driving the housing and rental crisis. One Nation has long advocated Australia’s immigration is much too high, and must be reduced to sustainable levels.

There also wouldn’t be any vanity projects, like Anthony Albanese’s precious but spectacularly unsuccessful $450 million voice to Parliament referendum. This was money that could have been put into freeing up vacant land and building homes. One Nation has long advocated for wasteful government expenditure to end.

Certainly, Woolworths, Aldi and Coles could be held to account for price gouging. But the Prime Minister isn’t interested in upsetting a group of people who financially back his failed referendum.

Simple changes to the supermarket code of conduct could immediately change check-out prices. But Labor has scant interest in any of these measures.

Instead, Labor will load QANTAS planes with first class travel for MPs to gather in parliament and have a chat over publicly funded tea and scones about the best way to make all this look better than it is.

A grown up is a person that admits they are wrong, reviews suggestions from other parties (like ours) and says, “Maybe my way doesn’t work, let’s give that other idea a go”. It’s time for Albo the clown to go and let the gown ups run the shop!