Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support today's matter of public importance moved by the member for Gippsland regarding the Labor government's failure to govern for all Australians. Regional communities in my electorate of Flynn feel completely abandoned by the current Labor government. Since their re-election, the Labor government have utilised almost every opportunity to treat rural and regional Australia as a cash cow and as nothing more than an obstacle in the way of their high-spend and high-tax agenda.

Let's first look at Labor's proposed new super tax. The Labor government is determined to push on and impose a 15 per cent tax increase on unrealised gains—paper profits—on superannuation balances worth more than $3 million. Under Labor's plan, earnings on self-funded superannuation balances above $3 million will be taxed at 30 per cent, up from the current 15 per cent, without indexation. This includes both realised and unrealised gains on small businesses, farms and shares held in self-managed retirement accounts.

This superannuation tax carries enormous risk for farmers and young people in particular. In relation to agriculture, the Labor government doesn't care that, in Australia, many farmers own their farms through a self-managed super fund—$3 million doesn't buy you a lot of farm. With land values increasing, how can they possibly pay the proposed tax on an unrealised gain on that asset? Farms are businesses that face a lot of uncertainty and volatility in terms of weather, natural disasters, and land and global commodity prices. To tax unrealised gains at 30 per cent, when a farmer never knows what's in store for them in the next season, is just bound to hurt farmers' ability to plan for the next season. Labor's tax on unrealised capital gains means that Australians will be hit with a 30 per cent tax on the increase in book value on that asset, such as property, that hasn't even been sold. How is that possibly fair? Shamefully, taxing farmers in this way is unprecedented in the Australian tax system.

For younger Australians, going forward, more and more young workers will ultimately be caught by the Labor tax grab. Critically, the proposed $3 million threshold isn't indexed to inflation, and who knows what inflation will be over the next 30 or 40 years?

Right now, the electorate of Flynn is feeling the wrath of Labor's renewables-only approach, with over 90 proposed projects in the Flynn region I represent. This is tearing rural communities apart. Weekly, if not daily, my office and I are contacted by mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters who are at their wit's end. The terrible burden of fighting these solar, wind and battery projects, as well as associated transmission lines, is emotionally and financially destroying families. What does the Labor government say about these people? Let's hear directly from the Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science, Mr Tim Ayres. Last week, he said this in the Senate:

We are building electricity generation hand over fist here, and the big obstacle to … transmission projects in the regions … is the silly billies wandering around, stoking fear, stoking resentment …

You couldn't be any more out of touch than that.

On 1 July, the Labor government's fuel efficiency standards commenced, and this new tax could add up to $17,000 to the cost of a new petrol or diesel fuelled car by 2029. Australian families and small businesses will now have to start paying Labor's tax every time they buy a new vehicle, and who is going to be worse off? It's rural and regional Australians. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, our nation does not need its own government penalising drivers of petrol and diesel or hybrid cars and utes with an additional tax. This will drive up the prices of new and second-hand cars and make life harder for families, again particularly in rural and regional Australia. Labor's tax is estimated to add up to $7,400 to the cost of a Ford Ranger in 2026 and up to $14,400 by 2029. A popular RAV4 hybrid family vehicle will incur almost $5,000 of additional cost by 2029.

Under this Labor government, many Australians in rural and regional Australia are doing it tough. They're grappling with the cost-of-living crisis and a growing shortage of housing and have been bulldozed by overseas renewable developers that are profiting from Australian taxpayer dollars. To any ministers of the Labor government: I invite you to the Flynn electorate, where I can introduce you to real people that the Labor government is affecting with their crazy policies.

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