Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

because they know—well, I hope they know—that integrity in this place still counts for something. The minister's interjecting that he doesn't seem to think that integrity does matter in this place. That's a matter for him. But, I've got to say, I think integrity is important, and I say to the Labor Party caucus it should be important to you. So why don't you say to the Prime Minister: 'Prime Minister, you said one thing before an election. You've done completely the opposite after the election. It's time to at least front up and be honest about that. Be honest for once. Just say: "Yes, I misled the Australian people, and because I did that, I want these Treasury bills fully examined. I want proper public scrutiny of them. I want to make sure that everyone knows the details of these bills."'

If the Australian public don't know and don't understand the details, they won't know how it's going to hit them. We know it's going to hit small business. It's going to hit farmers. It's going to hit the tech sector. It's going to hit the mining exploration sector; we've had Roger Cook, the Western Australian Premier, come out saying this. It's going to hurt people when it comes to what they're doing on income tax; the Premier of New South Wales has said we've got to address bracket creep, which is what we will do.

The only thing we get when we ask the government questions about their budget is the Prime Minister saying: 'Oh, I'm not quite sure. I don't really know. You can't put you can't put those questions to me, because I'm not across the detail.' Well, we do need to know the detail. That's why it's important that this gets referred to the economics committee. Maybe, in having it referred to the economics committee, it will give the government time to reflect. I think they do need to reflect on that side of the House.

You even have the Prime Minister's award winner for innovation in 2024 saying that this needs changing. You have the Premier of WA, the Premier of New South Wales, the Labor economics committee caucus, the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and COSBOA. You've even now got the National Farmers' Federation beginning to realise that there are serious consequences for farmers, especially when it's about them handing on their farms to the next generation. Remember, this was all meant to be about generational fairness. I tell you, this is going to kill family farming, and maybe that's what those opposite would like to see, like they would see the death of small and family businesses in this country.

We've said we'll work with this parliament to examine these toxic taxes. We've said we will work with this parliament to make sure that these toxic taxes do not go ahead. That's why we're happy to stand here and support this motion which will make sure that these bills go to the economics committee in the House, and we want to make sure there is proper interrogation also in the Senate. This is a toxic budget built on toxic broken promises, and it needs to be fully examined and thrown out of this parliament.

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