Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

These aren't my words, but the words of Emily, a constituent who wrote to me the day after Labor's budget of betrayal. She began saying:

I have woken up this morning feeling battered, empty and abused. But my abuser is my government.

This is the lived reality of a regional family running a small business who work hard yet are unable to get ahead as Labor's taxes rise and the pressure builds. She described the cycle as:

… a payment plan for last year's tax, a payment plan for next year's tax. It never stops.

To break free, she got a job working 80 hours a week on top of her business. Instead of relief, she was pushed into a higher tax bracket, saying:

If you earn it, they take it.

The strain sent her to hospital, suffering stress related illness and ulcers. Her accountant said that she would have been financially and physically better off, having never taken that work. It says everything about Australia under this government.

What troubled Emily the most, though, was Albanese's, 'tone deaf, insulting, patronising political theatre'. On the $250 carrot, she asked:

What does it buy? Scattering pennies while taking winter stores.

Her question to me was, 'How does this stop?' Well, it stops by axing Labor's tax grab in its budget of betrayal.

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