Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

With that encouragement in mind, I shall bring those on their side back to the topic of today, which is the government's addiction to high taxes and, indeed, high spending. We can often be quite delicate in our approach to the MPI some days, and I'm pleased to contribute to this debate in which we are at least calling a spade a spade. This government loves to portray itself as liberal light, especially the Treasurer, and I might now add the Leader of the House to that. He nails his liberal light blah blah, telling Australians that he's a responsible economic manager, and he does it without choking, not even a cough. It's quite a miracle. But, when you look at the figures, what you see is terrible economic management—indeed, woeful. It's so bad even a 12-year-old could pick it. It's as simple as this: receipts are down, and spending is up. Unemployment figures are misleadingly held up by government spending and public service job creation. It's not building the economy. It's not restoring the fundamentals. It's not building the economic pie for this generation and for the generations that will follow.

The unbearable truth for this government is that, under Labor, the household economy is shrinking. Australian households, in terms of purchasing power, are going backwards. The average household is, in fact, in recession. Business investment is depressed, and productivity just continues to fail.

Per capita GDP—that is, how much the economy grows for each man, woman and child, the most common yardstick for capturing the living standards of Australians—has grown in one quarter since Labor came to office in 2022. In the last quarter alone, it shrank by 0.2 per cent. In my old business, which was about helping Australians use our global network of free trade agreements, I would pay constant regard to our competitiveness ranking. I'm very sad to report that Australia has dropped from 13th to 18th in just one year. In addition, Australia dropped from 20th to 60th place in real GDP growth per capita since last year. Let me repeat: from 20th to 60th.

Central to this economic disaster is a steep decline in productivity—a five per cent drop, a full one per cent of which was in the last year alone. As a result of Labor's home-grown inflation, interest rates have been too high for too long in this country. Labor try to tell you that the inflation rate is not their fault, but the fact that government spending has gone from 24 per cent to 27 per cent of GDP, the highest level outside of a recession since 1986, proves otherwise. Labor have a long track record of economic mismanagement. They tax big; they spend big. True to form, this Treasurer has taken up Labor's longstanding mission to smash the hardworking Australian with increased tax.

The Treasurer has brought to this parliament a tax on aspiration and family savings—a tax on hardworking Australians who have worked throughout their lives to set money aside and provide for their futures. It's a big, bad tax targeting your savings and prosperity, and that of your family. It doesn't just target the wealthy, though. It's going to impact on communities across the nation and particularly on my own, the Mornington Peninsula. We have at least 1,900 residents who've already reached the threshold, according to research by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia. That's not because the people of the peninsula are particularly wealthy. It's because we've planned ahead, worked hard and put our superannuation into the productive capacity of the nation through small and family businesses, startups, farms, orchards, restaurants—you name it.

While the Treasurer claims that his tax will impact only 80,000 people, with over $3 million in their superannuation balances, the truth is that the unintended consequence of its not being indexed is that huge numbers of people will fall into its remit. The Financial Services Council estimates that about half a million people will hit the cap in their lifetime. It's not just today's retirees caught in this blatant cash grab but many thousands of Australians who'll be swept up in the years ahead, especially in my electorate of Flinders. Australians are industrious; they are ingenious, particularly our young people. Now, those who exercise self-reliance, save diligently and invest in the futures of their families will be punished. Labor's super tax hits assets that haven't even been realised, dollars that haven't even been made, potentially forcing the taxpayer to liquidate assets to foot Labor's bill.

If Labor thinks they can get away with taxing theoretical profit before even a dollar has been made, you know there's more to come. When Labor runs out of money, they go after yours.

See this speech in context