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

I move:

That the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 and Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 be referred to the Standing Committee on Economics for consideration and an advisory report by 30 December 2026.

In question time today, it became really clear that the government doesn't know its own budget. You can't believe it, but that is where we have ended up. The government does not know its own budget, so we need to refer the budget to the House Standing Committee on Economics for reporting back to this House.

I'll just give you a few examples. We asked the Prime Minister whether the budget increased taxes by $77 billion. He didn't know! And yet it's in his budget papers. We asked the Minister for Housing whether she could define a new dwelling. She couldn't define a new dwelling. This is why this must be sent to the economics committee for a hearing—it has to be. Last week we asked the Treasurer what was going to be carved out or what wasn't going to be carved out, and he could not answer. So it must be sent to the economics committee, because we need the government to understand its own budget. If it can't understand its own budget, what hope have the Australian people got of understanding it? Of course they can't do that. So we have to make sure that this goes to the economics committee.

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