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

I rise to make a contribution to the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027. To begin my contribution, I would like to quote Oliver Cromwell's speech to the English parliament that he delivered on 20 April 1653 because it is entirely relevant and exactly the way I feel about the government we have today and the way it has delivered its budget and the effect it will have on the Australian people. Cromwell said:

It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter'd your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil'd this sacred place, and turn'd the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress'd, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.

Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God's help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do; I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place; go, get you out!

Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. In the name of God, go!

I'm not suggesting that every member opposite is deserving of Cromwell's wrath, but I do say this: if there was ever a budget that embodied arrogance, hypocrisy, broken promises and contempt for ordinary people, this is the budget.

We'll fast forward 373 years, and Australians are once again watching a government that has lost touch with the people that it was elected to serve. This budget is not a budget of aspiration. It is not a budget for families. It is not a budget for workers, pensioners, veterans or small-business owners. It is a budget of excuses. It is a budget that punishes people for trying to get ahead, and this budget tells younger Australians that the dream their parents enjoyed is no longer available to them. Whether it is a tradie trying to grow a business or a young couple trying to buy their first home, a veteran seeking treatment or a pensioner struggling to pay the bills, this budget makes it harder for all.

Labor's toxic taxes amount to intergenerational fraud. For decades, Australians were told that, if they worked hard, saved carefully and invested wisely, they could build security for themselves and their families. That was the Australian promise and the Australian dream. Older generations had access to affordable housing. They benefited from sensible tax settings, and they had the opportunity to invest, build wealth and create stability. Now younger Australians are being told that opportunity is no longer for you. Housing is already out of reach for many Australians. So what are young people doing? They are trying to be responsible. They are saving. They are investing in shares, ETFs, crypto assets and managed funds. They are delaying gratification in the hope that one day they might be able to own a home or build financial security. And what does the Labor government do? They punish them for it. Labor's changes to capital gains tax are not reform; they are an assault on aspiration. This government wants to impose one of the highest effective capital gains tax regimes in the developed world. It is a tax on savings, a tax on investment and a tax on ambition.

The worst part is that this does not even appear to have been properly thought through. Experts, economists and former Treasury officials are now warning that, under Labor's model, Australians could end up paying tax greater than their actual real-world profit. I think that's just absurd. A hardworking Australian could invest prudently, diversify their portfolio—exactly as every financial adviser recommends—and still end up worse off, because Labor's tax regime design ignores how ordinary investment actually works. The Prime Minister dismisses criticism as scare campaigns. He refuses to answer the most basic questions. Why should Australians pay tax on gains inflated by inflation while receiving little or no practical recognition for the losses elsewhere in their portfolios? Treasury appears to have modelled a fantasy investor who buys one perfect asset that only ever rises in value, and this is not what happens in real life. Real Australians own diversified portfolios. Some shares rise; others fall. Some years are good; others are difficult. Under Labor's system, diversification could actually punish investors. One analysis showed that a diversified $10,000 investment across the major banks generated a real gain of around $1,250. Yet, under Labor's proposal, the tax payable could exceed $1,800. In plain English, the tax could be bigger than the profit, and that is not fair; that is daylight robbery.

Let us be very clear. This will not only hurt the wealthy investors. It will hurt startups. It will hurt innovation. It will hurt small businesses seeking capital. It will hurt Australians trying to build retirement savings outside the pension system. Labor claims to support future economy while simultaneously taxing the very investment it creates. You do not fix toxic taxes with carve-outs and exemptions; you axe them. Australians deserve a tax system that rewards hard work, rewards savings, rewards risk taking and rewards enterprise. Instead, Labor offers envy, punishment and class warfare.

Then we come to what many Australians are increasingly describing as Labor's hidden death tax. Before the election, the Prime Minister, and the Treasurer, repeatedly assured Australians there would be no new taxes that targeted family inheritance or generational wealth transfers. Yet buried within the budget are measures that amount to a punitive 30 per cent tax burden on inherited superannuation balances and assets in certain circumstances. Australians work their entire lives to build something for their children and their grandchildren. They pay income tax, they pay company tax, they pay GST, they pay stamp duty, they pay fuel excise, and now, after a lifetime of their paying taxes, Labor wants one more bite of the apple—and that's on the day you die. When Labor run out of money, they come after yours—no truer words said.

Perhaps the most disgraceful element of this budget is the treatment of our veterans. The Labor government has imposed a $5,000 annual cap on allied health services for veterans, and this is shameful. Veterans rely on physiotherapy, psychology, occupational therapy and other allied health supports not as luxuries but as essential treatments for injuries sustained while serving our nation. Many veterans live with chronic pain, mobility limitations and psychological trauma directly connected to their service. For veterans with complex needs, $5,000 will not even come close to addressing the necessary care that they need. So what happens then? The treatment gets delayed, conditions deteriorate, families carry greater burdens, mental health worsens, and ultimately the public health system pays a greater price anyway. Australia makes a sacred promise to those who wear this nation's uniform. We ask them to sacrifice on our behalf, and in return we guarantee that, when they come home, we'll look after them. This cap undermines that promise. It sends a terrible message not only to veterans but to every young Australian considering a career in the Australian Defence Force. A nation that spends billions on ideological vanity projects should never claim it cannot afford to properly care for its veterans.

Older Australians are also being punished under this budget. Labor has slashed the private health insurance rebate for many seniors, reducing the rate of rebate support from as high as 32 per cent down to 24 per cent. The consequences are obvious: higher premiums, higher household costs and potentially thousands of older Australians abandoning private health cover altogether because they simply cannot afford it. That will place even greater strain on public hospitals that are already struggling. At a time when pensioners and retirees are battling rising electricity prices, rising grocery bills, rising insurance costs and rising rent, this government has decided to make health care more expensive for them too. Seniors who have done the right thing all their lives should not be punished for maintaining private health cover.

Nowhere is the failure of the budget more obvious than in regional Australia, and the people in my electorate of Flynn, in Central Queensland, have been abandoned. Labor's budget obliterates the fair go for regional communities while doubling down on an economically reckless rush towards a renewables-only future that is driving up power prices and undermining the viability of industry. Regional Australians are becoming collateral damage in Labor's ideological obsession with net zero. The Prime Minister promised lower power prices. Instead, Australians are paying more. He promised lower inflation, yet Australians are facing higher grocery bills, higher rents and higher mortgages. He promised transparency, and instead Australians received hidden taxes, accounting tricks and broken promises. Even Labor's own figures show falling disposable income per capita and declining real wages. Australians are working harder just to go backwards.

Regional Australia has also been hit with billions of dollars of infrastructure cuts. This budget cuts $6.15 billion from the Inland Rail; $4.7 billion from broader infrastructure spending; $103 million from the national water grid; nearly $192 million from drought resilience, pest management and regional trade programs; and over $21 million from regional communications funding. At the same time, Labor somehow found $3.8 billion for the Victorian government's Suburban Rail Loop, a project increasingly viewed as a political favour rather than a national priority. What message does this send to regional Australia? 'If you live in the bush, your infrastructure gets cut.'

Labor continues to spend extraordinary sums pursuing its net zero agenda while refusing to level with Australians on the real cost. This budget allocates another $18.2 billion towards net zero measures, bringing the total spending commitments to at least $80 billion, and that figure does not even include the hidden costs of renewable subsidies through schemes like the Capacity Investment Scheme. If the government is so proud of its agenda, why does the Treasury barely mention it? Why was net zero virtually absent from the budget speech? This is because Labor knows Australians are increasingly seeing the consequences: higher electricity prices, reduced energy reliability, pressure on manufacturing, pressure on mining, pressure on agriculture and pressure on household budgets. Australia should pursue practical environmental outcomes while protecting jobs, industry and affordability. Instead, Labor has embraced ideology over pragmatism.

This budget also fails to confront the pressures created by Labor's immigration settings. Australians are already struggling to find housing, access health care and secure child care, yet Labor continues to preside over historically high immigration numbers without the infrastructure or housing supply needed to support them. That places enormous strain on communities. Australians are a compassionate people, but they also respect responsible planning. A government cannot simultaneously claim to care about housing affordability while dramatically increasing demand without increasing supply.

This budget reveals something deeper than bad economics. It reveals a government that fundamentally misunderstands aspiration. Labor sees aspiration as something suspicious: 'If you start a business, we tax you. If you invest, we tax you. If you save, we tax you. If you inherit something from your parents, we're going to tax you. And, if you drive a truck, work in the mining industry or rely on affordable energy, we're going to regulate you into oblivion.' This government does not believe that prosperity is created by individuals and communities. It believes that prosperity belongs first to the government. This budget is not about building Australia stronger; it is about managing its decline. It asks Australians to expect less, own less, save less and aspire less. But Australians are better than that. Regional Australians are better than that. The people of Flynn are better than that. Australians do not want a government that punishes success and subsidises failure. This is an appalling budget. Words fail me.

See this speech in context