Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

To Australians watching: thank you for your time. Tonight, I want to tell you about my vision for a fairer, freer and better Australia for all: an Australia where life is affordable; an Australia where we have cheap and abundant energy; an Australia where industries thrive and businesses boom; an Australia where we innovate, make and build things of ambition, and farm, mine and drill with determination; an Australia where a single income earner on an ordinary wage has enough for a home deposit and to pay off a mortgage steadily over time; an Australia where a mum or dad can afford to take time away from work to do the most worthwhile thing in life—raise a child; an Australia where those we welcome to our shores are all determined to embrace our values, to work hard, to contribute to this nation and to become Australian; an Australia where we have confidence in our nation's future; an Australia where we have hope and optimism. This isn't the Australia we know today. But we have known it, and we can know it again. We can restore our standard of living and we can protect our way of life.

That starts by fighting against the assault on aspiration at the heart of Labor's budget. Labor is locking out young Australians from the opportunities afforded to older Australians to build wealth and prosperity and to get ahead. This prime minister is one of many Australians who have benefited from these opportunities. Now he's pulling up the ladder of opportunity for the next generation by whacking higher taxes not only on housing but also on their savings, investments and small businesses. When government whacks a tax on something, you get less of it—less housing, less savings, less investment and less small business—for the next generation. Labor's budget isn't intergenerational fairness; it's intergenerational fraud.

Their budget is also an attack on every Australian. As Labor's own budget papers state, its tax hikes will reduce the number of houses available for young Australians to buy or to rent. Labor's negative gearing changes will hand over housing investment to multinationals and foreign pension funds. Labor's increase to the capital gains tax will discourage the investment Australia needs to grow. Labor's small business tax will punish small and family businesses that are already working harder than ever and collapsing at record rates. The Treasurer's higher taxes aren't economic reform; they're an assault on aspiration. They're an attack on the wealth creation that benefits all. They will crush the reward-for-hard-work spirit that underpins our nation's success. And so the coalition will fight like hell to prevent Labor's toxic taxes from becoming law. But, if they do, I commit that a coalition government I lead will repeal them.

There's a simple reason why Labor has broken its core election promises. This incompetent government has lost control of its spending. When Labor runs out of its money, it comes after yours. Intergenerational theft isn't caused by older Australians; it's been caused by the Albanese government. Labor's reckless spending will soon see our country with $1 trillion of debt. The only way to get debt down is to throw out this bad government.

To know a fairer, freer and better Australia, we also need something that's been missing for too long, and that's honesty—honesty about what's holding Australia back and leaving Australians behind. First, mass migration is changing Australia for the worse. The number of people coming in far exceeds the number of houses built. Consequently, the great Australian dream of homeownership is vanishing for old and new Australians alike. Across its two terms, Labor will have brought in two million people. That includes 90,000 more than planned in the next two years. By inviting in too many people too quickly, we've also seen some come with the wrong values—people who don't want to join and embrace Australia, but people who want to change Australia to suit them. We saw this with the Bondi tragedy, inspired by radical and violent Islam.

Second, prioritising net zero and emissions reduction above all else has seen cheap, always-on power dismissed for expensive, sometimes-on industrial-scale renewables, mainly sourced from offshore. Power prices have soared, causing households to struggle, businesses to close and industries to move offshore. Far from a future made in Australia, our future is being made abroad. Australians have been fed the lie that our economy can function on solar, wind and batteries alone. But the truth is that fossil fuels continue to drive our economy and our prosperity. In this budget alone, Labor has $18 billion in new net zero spending. Labor's net zero obsession is driving up inflation and destroying our economy, and that's why net zero must go.

Third, all Australians prosper from having access to international markets, but blind faith in globalisation has hollowed out our vital industries and made our country vulnerable. We're too dependent on other countries for critical supplies of jet fuel, diesel and fertiliser, and yet we have an abundance of resources beneath our feet. We could be self-sufficient and reindustrialise in key areas if we stop locking up our resources and turbocharge digging and drilling.

Fourth, during the pandemic, many Australians were reliant on government, but that crisis fed the mistaken belief that bigger government is the solution to every problem. Anthony Albanese promised that you would be better off under a big Labor government, but big government hasn't led to better government or Australians being better off. Government led housing programs have seen 30,000 fewer homes built each year—30,000 fewer each year. Government led industry policy has seen billions wasted on pie-in-the-sky schemes like green hydrogen. Government led child care for all has caused costs to rise by 14 per cent, and government led energy policy—pushing out gas and coal generation—has caused power prices to surge by 40 per cent.

Labor's reckless spending has caused inflation to soar. Contrary to Labor's spin, inflation was rising long before the conflict in Iran. Under Labor, interest rates have gone up 15 times, and Australia has experienced the worst collapse in living standards in the developed world. Moreover, under Labor, economic growth is an illusion. Every single dollar of growth has been due to population growth, mostly immigration—every single dollar. Labor remains committed to the follies of mass migration, net zero, locking up our resources and big government. We need to reject these bad ideas to bring about a fairer, freer and better Australia.

My life has taken me from the family farm—sheep yards and shearing shed—to small business, to factory floors, to boardrooms and to this parliament. I've seen everyday Aussie men and women who make, build, fix, create, contribute and care. And I've seen big government, big unions and big business direct, influence, accumulate power and seek to control the lives of others.

Our nation is at its very best when everyday Aussies are empowered. My ambition for this country is to revive the freedom that Australians have lost under Labor—not a government directed economy but a free-enterprise economy, not bigger government but better government that gets the big things right, gets off Australians' backs and puts its faith back in you.

To that end, the coalition government under my leadership will axe Labor's toxic taxes, end Labor's mass immigration and scrap Labor's net zero policies. When we restore and expand our choices, we can begin to restore our standard of living and protect our way of life.

To lower inflation, interest rates and the cost of living, we must reduce government spending. Labor has driven it to a 40-year high outside of the pandemic. We will work with the government to make its National Disability Insurance Scheme sustainable. Labor lacks any real resolve to rein in its reckless ways. Unlike Labor, the coalition will get spending under control and save billions. We will abolish Labor's climate bureaucracy, its net zero agency, its powerlines to nowhere and its tax on the family car and ute. We will end tax breaks for electric vehicles, which are overwhelmingly going to high-income Australians. We'll terminate Labor's corporate welfare, like sending money to foreign tech companies that don't deliver. We'll scrap Labor's housing bureaucracy, the ineffective Housing Australia Future Fund and its build-to-rent tax breaks for multinationals.

We'll remove Labor's handouts for noncitizens. Many Australians would be surprised to learn that noncitizens are eligible for welfare in this country. We've already announced that the first home buyer five per cent deposit scheme will be reserved for Australian citizens only. That's because Labor has allowed some 50,000 noncitizens to access this scheme. Moreover, this government is funding welfare for noncitizens as soon as they arrive on our soil. Yet it has cut the private health insurance rebate for Australians over 65 and slashed $600 million for our veterans. Labor puts Australians second, whereas the coalition will always put Australians first.

Tonight, I announce that a coalition government will reserve the NDIS and 17 different welfare programs, including JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and the family tax benefit, for Australian citizens only, and save taxpayers billions. My message is this: if you commit to Australia, Australia will commit to you. After all, the taxes paid by hardworking Australians should support Australians.

Australians know that revenue from booming iron ore, gas and coal prices go a long way. For instance, revenues can help to build more houses and stronger communities, as well as the long-term infrastructure in cities and regions that we need, like the Inland Rail that's been axed by Labor. Revenues can help to pay down debt too. Since Labor came to office, they've received almost half a trillion dollars in commodity revenue upgrades, mostly driven by higher resource prices. This year alone, iron ore prices have averaged more than US$100 a tonne, but this budget assumes they return to US$60 a tonne.

Instead of paying down debt and building our nation, Labor has squandered resource profits with its self-indulgent spending. In contrast, the coalition will not neglect our responsibility to our children and grandchildren. Where resource tax revenues are higher than forecast, we will bank 80c in every dollar into our future generation fund. This fund will help to pay down Labor's trillion dollars of debt. It will help to invest in nation-building infrastructure, and 25 per cent of funding will be for our regions that have been neglected by Labor—regions that are home to the natural resources we all benefit from.

In my career I've worked across agriculture, energy, resources and infrastructure sectors. I've helped small and large businesses to grow. I know what makes an economy tick and what Australia needs to grow and to thrive. Government doesn't grow the economy; private enterprise does. Tonight, I begin to outline how the coalition will restore Australian prosperity. It starts with driving investment. Investment lifts the economy's speed limit. It drives up jobs, real wages and real income, and it strengthens the budget to pay for the safety net and to pay down debt.

Investment is a vote of confidence in our country, with compounding benefits. For example, when a builder invests in a ute, he can do more jobs, take on a new apprentice, grow his business and service more of his community. To lift confidence in our country and encourage business investment, tonight I announce an important down payment—the first of many. We will allow any business with a turnover of less than $10 million to immediately deduct assets of up to $50,000 on a permanent basis

To boost investment, we also need to free the economy from the government's chains. Laws are too complex and obstruct enterprise. A coalition government will rewrite and simplify the legislative rulebook, including the Corporations Act, the tax act, the competition act, the National Construction Code and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Take the construction code as one example. Labor has expanded it to more than 2,000 pages. The code's thousands of rules add tens of thousands of dollars to new housing bills. We want the code to be closer to 200 pages, and we will go further.

Regulatory bodies created by government set rules and enforce laws, and that's important. But under Labor, these regulators have become bigger, more powerful and overbearing. They're regulating for regulation's sake. They need to get out of the way. A coalition government will impose new responsibilities on regulators by law. We will require regulators to act in a way that encourages competition, nurtures investment, increases productivity, boosts wages and grows the economy.

The coalition will also abolish Labor's great big carbon tax, the so-called Safeguard Mechanism. This tax jacks up the price on essential building materials like steel, cement and glass, driving up the cost of a new home. It also undermines investment in key industries and hastens them going offshore. Indeed, we'll abolish Labor's crippling net zero carbon taxes wherever we find them—on mining, manufacturing, electricity, vehicles and imports.

Now, just as I want more investment in Australia, I want Australians to keep more of their income. If you're feeling poorer under this government, it's because you are. Labor is stealing from you with inflation. The Treasurer says inflation will reach five per cent next month. People see Labor's inflation steal from them in higher grocery prices, power bills, mortgage repayments and other cost-of-living expenses.

But Labor is stealing from Australians in another way, year after year, without new laws, without an election and without you even noticing until you look at your bank account. When your wages rise just to keep up with inflation, you're no better off. But you pay higher taxes as though you are better off. More of your income goes into a higher tax bracket. This is bracket creep, and it's why you feel poorer. The higher Labor's inflation goes and the longer it lasts, the more the government takes from you. This is a stealth raid on Australians working hard to get ahead.

Labor's promising that your real wages will finally go up. But Labor's plan is to tax away all of workers' real wage gains. Living standards go nowhere. A typical worker on $70,000 a year will see their entire real wage gains taxed away. The worst thing about this tax is that it keeps going up and keeps taking more each year, forever. Under a coalition government I lead, this will end.

Tonight I announce our tax back guarantee. From 2028-29, we will index the bottom two income tax thresholds to inflation. That will fully protect 85 per cent of income earners, with relief of around $2.50 in year 1 for a typical worker, growing to more than $1,000 a year in year 4. From 2031-32, we will index the top two tax thresholds as well. That will fully protect all income earners from inflation.

This is generational tax reform. It's fair, it's simple, and it's honest. It will back Australians to work hard, take risks, invest in their future and invest in our country's future. It will force government to respect your money. Any government that wants to tax Australians more should have the courage to front up and take that tax increase to an election. Under Labor, Australians work harder, pay more and fall behind. Under the coalition, Australians will be rewarded, keep more and get ahead.

From my first day as opposition leader, I said I wanted to re-establish homeownership as the centrepiece of the Australian dream. My goal is more houses for Australians and a fairer go for young Australians. A coalition government will get stalled housing projects moving again. We will invest $5 billion in supporting infrastructure like roads, water power and sewerage. With this support, we will unlock 400,000 new homes for Australians. As I said, we will cut red tape, which will take up to $70,000 off the cost of a new home.

But the biggest problem with access to housing is that, under Labor, immigration numbers are too high. With Labor having opened the migration floodgates, the dream of homeownership has become a nightmare for so many Australians. Since Labor was elected, it has brought in a record 1.4 million people—about the population of Adelaide. That number accounts for 80 per cent of our population growth over the same period, and that's why there's a shortfall of homes for about 400,000 people. Australians are deeply concerned about the scale and pace of immigration on housing, infrastructure and services, and that includes migrants themselves who have become Australians.

Tonight I announce a far-reaching and unprecedented housing policy. It's also an immigration policy that puts Australians first. A coalition will cap immigration numbers based on the number of homes constructed each year. Never again will a government be able to bring in more people than our housing can support. That's our commitment. I also stress this point. Given the magnitude of people coming in under Labor, immigration will need to be significantly below our cap in the first few years of a coalition government. We must allow the housing market to catch up. Only closer to the election can we provide a precise immigration number. It will be rash to do so now because Labor always exceeds its immigration targets, and it will do so again. By the next election, the situation could be even worse than it is today.

But this much I promise, the coalition will deliver one of the biggest cuts to immigration in the history of this country. Our immigration cut will complement our plan to lift immigration standards. We will make the existing Australian values statement an enforceable visa condition. We'll make it an obligation, not an option, for permanent visa holders to learn English. We will enhance screening to stop radicals from entering our borders. We'll curtail frivolous protection claims by restoring temporary protection visas and establishing a list of safe countries deemed free from persecution. And we will process and deport 70,000 overstayers who have no legal right to stay. Those who criticise the law being enforced must explain why their sympathies lie with illegal overstayers instead of with migrants and Australians who abide by the law.

In a dangerous world of coercion, crises and conflict, we need to address threats and risks comprehensively and get serious about our self-reliance. Tonight I announce that a coalition government will develop a national security strategy and appoint a dedicated national security adviser. Central to that strategy will be defence. Unlike Labor, with its accounting trickery, the coalition will commit to spending at least three per cent of GDP on defence. That is what is needed to bolster our ranks of war fighters in this country, to harden our bases, to deliver AUKUS, to build offensive and defensive drones and missiles at speed and scale in an age where such weapons are essential to deter a larger adversary.

Energy security will also be a priority in this new strategy. While renewables have a role in our energy mix, especially rooftop solar and home batteries, they aren't a rapid replacement for fossil fuels. Fossil fuels still deliver most of our energy needs. Australia isn't undergoing a rapid, pain-free energy transition, as Labor pretends. Australia's energy security requires energy abundance. That's the coalition's goal. So tonight I announce that a coalition government will work with coal-fired power plant owners to keep them running as long and as hard as possible to get electricity prices down.

On fuel, the coalition has said we will double our minimum reserves of petrol, diesel and jet fuel to put our total reserves within reach of 90 days. We will also invest $800 million for new fuel storage to give us one billion litres of additional capacity. To incentivise more refining capacity, we'll make the fuel security services payment available to companies who can build new refineries. This includes refining of non-conventional fuels like biofuels and coal-to-liquids. Ultimately, we want decades of fuel reserves and much more energy. We can achieve that by getting Australian resources out of the ground—more Australian gas working hard for Australians, more Australian oil working hard for Australians.

To dig and drill, the coalition will remove obstacles. As I said earlier, we will abolish Labor's hidden carbon taxes, like the safeguard mechanism, and we will rewrite Labor's antidevelopment environmental laws to speed up approvals. We're also going to unlock critical gas and oil projects. We will create under law national strategic priority projects. Two nation-building projects will be immediately designated by a coalition government: the Browse Basin offshore gas field in Western Australia and the Taroom oil field in Queensland. The Commonwealth will get out of the way so the states can get projects going. The coalition will also put an end to the green-energy rent-seeking. We will back any technologies that can deliver affordable and reliable energy in this country. That includes coal, gas, hydro, batteries and renewables in the right places, and it will include nuclear power too. We will lift the ban.

To Australians watching tonight, I know you're struggling on many fronts. I know you're apprehensive about your and your children's future. I know you're worried about the state of our cherished country. But decline isn't inevitable. Damage isn't irreparable. Difficulty isn't insurmountable. We can restore our standard of living. We can protect our way of life. I'm not under any misapprehension. There's much work the coalition must do to win your confidence. But, with the policies I've announced tonight and the vision I've outlined, I hope you can begin to believe again. Believe in our promise of better government. Believe in the prospect of a fairer, freer and better Australia. That Australia is worth fighting for, now more than ever, and the fight starts tonight.

Debate adjourned.

House adjourned at 20:05

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Sharkie ) took the chair at 09:40.

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