Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

The imputation is not being made by me. It is being made by independent corruption watchdog Geoffrey Watson SC in an independent inquiry being run through the Queensland parliament.

But now we're going into matters that I broadly agree extend beyond the specific purpose of the bill. I am talking about how public money is raised and how public money is expended, including the basis in which this legislation is being put forward. Labor have a spending problem. They simply cannot contain how they are going to spend the amount of money they receive from the public. That is why they will continue on their trajectory of $1 trillion of debt in the coming weeks.

The denial of that reality by this government is why they are going back and taxing Australians more. They are deliberately and maliciously targeting self-managed superannuation funds, as they consistently have done before. None of that has changed. None of that is different to the longstanding practice of this government. But what is very clear is that Labor are increasingly finding it difficult. They are feeling the heat and the pressure coming from the opposition because people are talking about it. People are being forthright about not just how the money is raised but how it is being expended as well. I understand that it is uncomfortable for members opposite when they raise revenue and they don't want attention on how it is being spent, but I can assure you that it is deeply relevant to this legislation, and some of us will not be backing down.

What we are seeing under this legislation is a farce. Every step of the way the process of passing legislation related to this tax is a farce. They proposed an unrealised capital gains tax, and it was mocked and ridiculed by Paul Keating and by Bill Kelty. Even Sally McManus had a go. That's how out of touch our Treasurer truly is. He simply doesn't understand not just his portfolio, because he's a passenger in it, but the consequences of his actions.

The challenge for the Australian community is that the government now seeks to pass new legislation that introduces a tax that Australians didn't vote for. And let's be clear about this—I'm sure there will be objections that this isn't relevant from the other side of the chamber—the Australian people did not vote for the tax that Labor is now seeking to introduce. And coming up to the 2026-27 budget, the Labor Party will put forward further taxes that they lacked the courage and the honesty to put forward to the Australian people at the last election.

They have broken their promise once. They will repeat that a second time and a third time. We're now going to see a government that has no trust at the core of its economic agenda, and no tax will be off the table. When they change capital gains tax on one property, expect them to come after the family home next. When they seek to remove negative gearing selectively, expect it all to go. And why are they raising the revenue? Just like under this new tax introduced in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Building a Stronger and Fairer Super System) Bill 2026, they are doing it so they can spend that money on untoward activities. Make no mistake, part of it's because that money goes towards cartel-ish behaviour, which absolutely involves the CFMEU.

According to independent corruption watchdog Geoffrey Watson SC, somewhere between $15 billion to $30 billion has been handed from Labor governments to organised crime. It is not my opinion; it is what is being said. I hear this often from members on the other side of the chamber when we debate other pieces of legislation—and they aren't always about taxation and revenue—which is, 'What is it that people want to cut from the federal budget?' It's abundantly clear that we absolutely want to cut out public money that goes towards organised crime through the CFMEU-Labor cartel.

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