Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026, the Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2025-2026 and the Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026. These bills draw on the Consolidated Revenue Fund to finance continued operation of government and to give effect to decisions taken since the budget. Together, they appropriate $98.2 billion from consolidated revenue for the 2025-26 year.

To be very clear, the opposition will not oppose these bills. Our support ensures the continuity of essential government services and funding for ongoing activities. However, that support does not mean that the coalition, the opposition, endorses the government's management of the Australian economy or its economic program. In fact, we are strongly of the view, based on the evidence already in after three years of the Albanese government, that they are doing a very poor job of managing the economy. As a consequence of their poor economic management, we are seeing Australians becoming poorer and the economy becoming weaker. We know Australians are poorer because they are experiencing the largest drop in living standards among the developed world. The largest single drop is here in Australia, and the Australian people are feeling it. They're feeling it right across the country, no matter what it is people are doing in their daily lives.

When one's living standards fall so much, families in particular have hard decisions to make. We are talking about families who are not just cancelling holidays but are telling their children they can't buy that new pair of shoes. Some children are having to move school because their parents can't afford the school they were going to. We are seeing hard decisions being made by families about how to live their lives. We are seeing senior citizens make hard decisions such as do they eat at night or do they heat their homes. These are the day-to-day consequences of very poor economic management, where you do see the Australian people suffering, and enormously so.

We know that the Australian people have been experiencing a per capita recession. That continues to be the case. We have the cost of living only getting worse. We've seen the price of rent and housing go up by around 20 per cent. Insurance is up by well over 20 per cent. Electricity and gas have gone up by well over 38 or 39 per cent. These are enormous increases in everyday costs for the everyday Australian, and that's just the start.

We know that it's not just the Australian people feeling poorer but the economy itself being weaker. We see that through the insolvency figures, because, under this government, this is the biggest drop in solvent businesses that we've had in our history—that is, more companies than ever before have become insolvent. We know that, and, in every town in Australia you walk through, you can see the shops which have closed. You can talk to the cafe and restaurant owners; they've been doing it tough—the small businesses. Any business which is reliant on energy in particular is suffering because they're dealing with the highest electricity prices in the world today. That's Australia. That's the Australia of 2025 under this government. It is why you also see our major manufacturers closing their doors. Look at smelters right across the country; the only thing that's keeping them working at the moment is the fact that governments come in and basically subsidise their operations. Such is the pain being felt by not just the Australian people but businesses operating in the Australian economy.

There are two imperatives that this government should be mindful of: (1) it needs to stop its spending spree and (2) it needs to start growing the economic pie. On the first, when it comes to stopping the spending spree, outside of recession we have not seen this level of government spending since 1986—an extraordinary amount of spending. We have seen spending as a percentage of GDP go from 24 to 27 per cent. We have seen in this year's budget the plan for this government to spend $160 billion more than only a bit over three years ago, in the last coalition budget. They just keep on spending. And this government cannot claim that the spending spree is due to pressures on the budget that are coming from the NDIS, aged care, pensions et cetera alone. No, this is a government that has made deliberate decisions on budget measures from which, quite candidly, this economy has not been able to produce the revenues. So what does this government do? It goes to debt and it goes to tax.

When it comes to debt, we have seen debt go up enormously. This government has added around $100 billion to the national credit card over the last three years. We have debt quickly racing to $1 trillion. It'll hit around $1.2 trillion by the time of the next election. Every time this government puts more debt on the national credit card, it's putting debt on the next generation of Australians, because it's them, the next generation, who will have to pay off Labor's debt. This government knows it, but it continues to saddle the next generation with more and more debt. Why? Because it cannot stop its spending spree.

The second imperative is to start growing the economic pie. The problem here again—it's all in the evidence of the last three years, and we've seen it at the household level. We've seen this economy actually shrink in size. We have seen productivity go backwards—it's been in decline—by over five per cent over the last three years. This is a government which is sending the economy backwards. Just recently, the RBA downgraded their forecast for both productivity and economic growth. Here we have a government where economic growth is less than half of the long-run average. When the economy actually shrinks for the Australian household, you know there's a problem. So what do they do? If it's not debt, there's one other thing they're doing: taxes. We are still in the early days of the second term of the Albanese government. The only tangible economic measure this government brought into this term is to saddle Australians with higher taxes, and that is through its superannuation tax. It's super big and super bad, and it will be hitting the Australian people. Worst of all, it crosses a red line in tax law by introducing the taxation of unrealised capital gains—in other words, theoretical profits. This government wants to tax Australians on profits they haven't even made. This is the state of affairs we are dealing with.

We have asked in this chamber many a time of the Treasurer or the Prime Minister whether or not they would rule out extending the taxation of unrealised capital gains into other areas. They will not rule that out. Whether that be family trust or the family home, who knows? This government has been asked many a time in this chamber over recent weeks as to whether or not it would rule out a series of taxes. It will not rule out any further taxes, and we know why it needs more taxes—because (1) it will not stop its spending spree and (2) it has proven to be incapable of growing the economic pie, which means it's either debt or taxes. They're the only things. If you're going to just keep on spending, you've got to put more on the next generation in terms of debt—which, yes, they're doing—or they've got to come after people's tax, and that's precisely what they plan to do.

I'll finish with this: there's one simple thing this government could do it if it wanted to fix the fiscal mess that it has created. The first thing it could do, if it wanted to start fixing the budget, is to introduce some fiscal rules. Every single government since the Hawke government, except the Albanese government, has had rules that the Treasurer has had to abide by, rules that would basically contain spending. This prime minister has allowed this treasurer to have free rein. As cabinet ministers and backbenchers rock up with their hands out, wanting more from the Treasurer, there are no rules—off it goes! More money is spent. The starting point to fixing the budget is to introduce fiscal rules. If it's good enough for every single government since Hawke, why is it not good enough for this government, especially given that spending is out of control, that they're not growing the economy, that Australians are feeling so poor and that the economy is becoming so weak? With that, I conclude my remarks on the appropriation bills.

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