Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

This budget is unravelling. Every week, another broken promise surfaces. A death tax is buried in the fine print. We see dodgy inflation data. We see a secret $200 billion income tax hike. The Treasurer cannot keep track of his own—let's call them 'porky pies'. His economic modelling has one setting: stroke inflation, tax inflation, spend inflation—wash, rinse repeat: stroke inflation, tax inflation, spend inflation. Australians—in particular, regional South Australians—are living with the consequences. We face the mainland's highest inflation. They feel it at the supermarket. They feel it on their mortgage. They feel it in their pay packet. They feel it in their power bill.

Deputy Speaker, you're going to get sick of this, but I will say it again: Labor can't manage money, so they're coming after yours. This is the highest taxing government in our history. The budget locks in $77 billion in higher taxes. The Prime Minister has confirmed $273 billion in taxes that Australians did not vote for.

Debt is heading to $1.25 trillion. The interest bill will be $80,000 a minute. That is 12 credit cards being issued per Australian, behind their backs. Today's debt is tomorrow's taxes. And the next generation is being handed the bill.

We will fight these taxes. If they become law under Labor, a coalition government will repeal them. We want lower taxes. We want lower inflation—indeed, we need lower inflation. We want an economy designed to back the self-starters of the nation, not put them in handcuffs. Under a coalition government, you work, you risk, you win. Under Labor, you work, you risk, you pay, because they can't manage money.

This budget is built on broken promises, higher taxes, lower living standards, and fewer homes. The government's own budget papers say that 30,000 fewer homes will be built as a direct consequence of these new taxes—those are their numbers, in black and white. When you tax something, you get less of it; it's economics 101. The more you tax housing investment, the less housing investment you get. But this government has decided that that is the price young Australians should pay instead.

Their budget narrative is built around 'intergenerational fairness'. But strip away the rhetoric and look at the budget papers: they confirm lower housing supply. If you combine that with the government's migration overshoot of 90,000 people, it can only mean higher demand. Lower supply plus higher demand equals higher prices—again, it's economics 101. That is not fairness; that is a housing disaster hiding behind a spin doctor's catchphrase.

The government is getting both supply and demand badly wrong. The government's push to increase borrowing capacity for first home buyers will again just push up prices and saddle young Australians with more debt.

And young Australians are also investors. Labor's Robin Hood narrative, that it is only taking money away from the billionaires, away from the greedy boomers, is pure-gold spin. Young Aussies are smart and are investing in ETFs, shares and crypto—although I don't think crypto is necessarily a good investment.

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