Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

At least Bill had courage; he took it to an election. And guess what? The Australian people didn't support it.

What do we have? We have a prime minister and a treasurer who are not honest with the people of Australia. They did not say—in fact, they deliberately said the opposite—that they would be attacking CGT, negative gearing or trusts. And here we are. They say that it is about ensuring 'intergenerational equity'. What a title! It is an absolute con. It is a Trojan Horse, because, in actual fact, it is our younger people who will not have those tools. CGT, negative gearing, trusts and the ability to build wealth and aspiration are being taken away from them. It's older people who will be able to keep such benefits, because they're going to be grandfathered. This is shonky, and I could use a whole bunch of other words to describe it. This budget is not for regional Australians, and it is not for young people, as this government want to say that it is.

Labor talks about equity. The words of the National Rural Health Alliance's Susi Tegen come to mind. She said on budget night:

There is … no reference to how the government will implement the National Health Reform Agreement Schedule F: Better Health Equity for Rural and Remote Communities—

which has been agreed to already. It will take effect in—guess how long—two months. In fact, it will take effect in less than two months—six weeks. But there is no funding for it. What is going on that this government can make promises and then walk away from them as though it doesn't matter? It absolutely does matter, and people who live in regional Australia are feeling it. There's no funding for health care, no funding for aged care and no answers to the problems they face every day.

I acknowledge the member for Cowper, who just spoke about the cost of living in his electorate. You know what? It's same same in my electorate and same same for the next speaker, my colleague the member for Lyne.

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