Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight, the Leader of the Opposition will use his budget reply to lay out a plan to restore Australia's standard of living and protect our way of life. It'll be a direct contrast to Labor's budget of broken promises, higher taxes, more debt, lower living standards and fewer homes for Australians. A number of my constituents have raised concerns about Labor's budget, including Somya from Beecroft, who has concerns about the capital gains tax changes.

She wrote:

What troubles me most is the impact on my parents.

My parents are first-generation migrants who came to Australia with very little and built their lives entirely through hard work.

They raised two children while working full-time jobs, sacrificed continuously, and slowly built a modest investment portfolio over many years as a foundation for their retirement. They are not wealthy by any measure.

They're people who did exactly what this country asked them: work hard, save, invest, plan ahead.

Now, as they approach retirement and are putting my younger sibling through medical school, these reforms threaten to fundamentally disrupt their financial plans.

The reality of these reforms are that they penalise long-term investors, many of whom are ordinary families and working people.

Somya's parents have tried to do the right thing, and we should back them. But this story is a reminder that Labor stands for high tax, more debt and fewer houses. We want Australians to not just work hard for their money but make their money work hard for them. Tonight, you will hear that we stand for something different than Labor's class-war budget.

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