Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Tax Cuts) Bill 2024. I'm amazed when I come into this place and listen to members opposite talk about the cost of living. It seems that they have finally awoken from their political slumber to realise that actually Australians are hurting right now. For 20 months this government has been distracted by so many other different things, and it has failed, at every point and every level, to address the cost-of-living issues that we've been talking about—that is, until the Prime Minister realised and said: 'I've got a problem here. I need to do something about this.'

It has taken this government 20 months to come up with something meaningful—albeit, for the average punter, we're talking about a tax reduction of $15 a week. I look at how much the average Australian family's costs have increased in the period since this government came to power, the extraordinary costs that the average family is now enduring. Rents are sky-high. We've seen 12 interest rate rises. The average mortgage holder in this country is now paying $24,000 more than they were under the coalition government, and that's after tax. We often don't seem to remember or recognise that it's after tax. Think about the average Australian family that is often, sadly, living from hand to mouth. Now, if they've got a mortgage, they are paying an additional $24,000 after tax. Their electricity bill has gone through the roof—far from the $275 reduction under Labor that the Prime Minister promised, a claim he has not repeated once since the election.

Rents have gone up because most landlords have a mortgage. If their mortgage goes up, rents will go up. Rents have gone up exponentially because this government is introducing over 1.5 million immigrants to this country, with no plan on where these people are going to work or live. That is having unbelievably drastic consequences for housing pressures. I am getting people contacting my office every day—I had another one today—with some really sad stories about young people and old people who can't find a house. A gentleman's mum contacted my office yesterday and said her son has five days until he's evicted and he's got nowhere to go. There is story after story after story.

This government talks big about housing. At the same time it's just pulled $160 million in funding from the Mooloolah River interchange in my electorate. Over a hundred houses were demolished to make way for the Mooloolah River interchange. Now, because of this government's slashing of infrastructure spending, the people who were living in over a hundred demolished houses may be homeless. Do the maths. On average, around two and a half people live in a house. I don't know where they've gone. Trying to find a house on the Sunshine Coast is virtually impossible.

This government is only now talking the big talk about cost of living because this Prime Minister realised that he was in trouble with the defeat at the referendum and because of the cost-of-living pressures that Australians are feeling. During the 90-second statements every single one of those opposite came in here and talked about the cost of living. When was the last time government members opposite talked about the cost of living until very recently? The government has the opposition's support for this bill because we are a party that supports lower taxes and smaller government.

They're slapping themselves on the back and congratulating themselves, on the backs of Australians that have never done it so hard. I was a carpenter in the 1980s in the 'recession that we had to have'—Paul Keating's recession. I've seen tough times as a carpenter. But although interest rates climbed to 18 per cent back then, there are more people doing it hard now. Perhaps it's because of my job that I'm exposed to people's difficulties. It doesn't matter where I go.

I opened Gateway Care's new facilities in Caloundra just before Christmas. When we were in government, we provided them with some funding to build a new shed. Gateway Care is like a Foodbank for the Sunshine Coast. They told me that they have got people turning up to Gateway Care who work; both mum and dad work. They might drive nice cars, but they are in real strife because they cannot make ends meet. When you look at those figures that I talked about earlier—an additional $24,000 for the average punter with the average mortgage, after tax—where can the average mum and dad find that sort of money? They can't. A lot of families saved up a lot of money during COVID, so a lot of those savings are being exhausted, but, equally, there are a lot of families in which mums and dads are having to go back and get a second job and, in some cases, a third job. For those members opposite to come in here and be slapping themselves on the back about how good this government purports to be, it is a direct affront to the pain and the suffering that Australians across this country are feeling, particularly in regional Queensland—places like where you live and I live, Mr Deputy Speaker.

There are things in this bill which the government supports. We support the lower tax bracket reducing down to 16 cents. That's a good thing. But, when it comes down to trying to ease the cost of living, I know that at 10 minutes to six—and it's 10 minutes to five back home—people will be driving to and from sport or will be just about to drive home from work or maybe from one job to the next job because they have to work two jobs, or maybe they're not taking their kids to sport, because they can't afford for their kids to do sport any more. Australians are doing it tough, and it grates on each and every single one of them to hear the government come in here and pat themselves on the back.

The reality is that the stage 3 tax cuts that we legislated when we were in government were supported by those members opposite, the government, when they were in opposition. They supported those changes. But now there's a Dunkley by-election and now the Prime Minister is under pressure as a result of his appalling leadership during the referendum. Surely his backbench was feeding information to him. 'Boss, we've got a real problem here. There are a lot of people out there hurting. You've got to do something.' As a result of the sad passing of Peta Murphy, we have the by-election in Dunkley. This by-election will be a test for this Prime Minister's leadership. He knows that as well as anybody. The reality is that's why these new tax cuts were born.

On more than a hundred occasions, this Prime Minister told us that this government was not going to change the legislated stage 3 tax cuts. 'My word is my bond,' he said. They told us they weren't going to change the franking credits. They told us they weren't going to make any changes to superannuation. Now they're telling us: 'Oh, there will be no changes to negative gearing. There will be no changes to the capital gains tax offsets.' Well, when Australians hear the Prime Minister speak, they have every single right to wonder whether what he is saying is truthful. There are only so many times you can break faith with the Australian people before the Australian people will call you out.

At least the member for Maribyrnong, when he was the Leader of the Opposition, ran at the 2019 election with, it has to be said, a very upfront approach to taxation policies and what Labor were going to do. We fought him on that, and the Australian people spoke very loudly, but at least the member for Maribyrnong had the intestinal fortitude to be honest and to nail his colours to the mast. This Prime Minister went to the 2022 election making numerous commitments from which he has since backtracked. Labor has gone against those commitments, and now Australians are wondering whether the person in the Lodge is someone who they can trust. That is a sad state of affairs.

Politicians cop a bad rap no matter what, doesn't matter what party is in government, but when the Prime Minister of the land stands up and says, 'You can trust me on this'—says it on over 100 occasions: 'We don't plan on making any changes,' and, 'My word is my bond'—Australians have a reasonable expectation that things will not change. When you break that bond, Australians are rightly able to question everything that comes out of that person's lips thereafter, and that person is the Prime Minister of this country.

The Liberal-National coalition has always stood for smaller government. It has always stood for lower taxes. For those opposite to try and mount some sort of an argument that we're not supporting these changes is clearly incorrect. It's manufacturing. At the end of the day, this bill will be supported by the coalition. That will be reflected in the votes and tallies. I look forward to making a further contribution later.

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