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

Amazing! Technology and economics always win. The ideology of this government is no match for the simple physics of the equation.

We are providing to Australians an alternative plan, and it's one that Angus Taylor, the Leader of the Opposition, set out in his budget reply. It is a tax back guarantee. This isn't a guarantee that's provided in exchange for a raid on Australians' pockets, like the Prime Minister, who, like I say, is a 'bring six, drink 12 and take a carton home' kind of guy. This is a policy that will permanently put a handbrake on the size of government in this country, such that any future government would need to explain to the Australian people before an election what their plans were in terms of taking more of their hard-earned. By limiting the thresholds to inflation, Australians will not be taxed simply because prices go up in this country.

The Treasurer belled the cat when he suggested that the true cost of our policy would be some quarter of a billion dollars over the next decade. What that really said to the Australian people was that he planned to sneakily steal $250 billion from the Australian people over the next decade without asking for it. From 2028-29, a coalition government will index the bottom two income tax thresholds to inflation, which will deliver $250 in tax relief in year 1 alone, growing to more than $1,000 a year by year 4. From then on, the top two tax thresholds would also be indexed. What's important about this is that it provides permanent and ongoing protection against inflation.

The reality is that Australia's lowest paid were yesterday awarded a 4.75 per cent pay increase by the Fair Work Commission—a commission which is touted as independent. And yet, every time it makes a decision that this government is seemingly keen to take credit for, the minister is out there spruiking his responsibility. It seems to me it's a bit like when the RBA was lowering interest rates in this country, and the Treasurer was all over it like a rash. But, as we enter the cycle of seemingly never-ending interest rate increases under this government—15 and counting—all of a sudden it's the big, bad RBA that's got nothing to do with the Treasurer.

Well, the bad news is that it's got everything to do with the Treasurer and his rampant spending. His own budget papers expose that the size of government will increase for the next couple of years and hit 27.1 per cent of GDP in this country. That is proof that this is a government addicted to spending and also that it is the highest taxing government in Australian history. That's why it's so important the coalition bring forward this alternative plan to limit the size of government—to limit the thief in the night that is inflation from stealing from Australians and allowing, aiding and abetting the Labor government stealing from Australians without asking for it and without being up front about how they intend to do it.

Of course, on the coalition side, our founder of the Liberal Party, Robert Menzies, was the first to articulate that we are the party of homeownership. We're not blaming tax settings for creating the problem. We're up front that it's Labor's failure to manage migration and its layering of red tape and regulation, which is crushing the completion of new housing in Australia, that are to blame. Frankly, you can't tackle the problem here without being up front and honest about what it actually is. So the coalition will cap net overseas migration depending on the number of new homes completed in Australia. It seems to me very, very self-evident that the capacity of a country to welcome new people to it is directly linked to the number of new houses being built, and that is why this is such a sensible reform.

Of course, we also committed to establishing a $5 billion housing infrastructure fund to unlock some 400,000 new homes by connecting infrastructure like water, sewerage, power and access roads, which will get flat, zoned, structured and approved land developed into the lots that Australians need to buy in order to build the home of their dreams. That's significantly more than the Labor Party have promised, and indeed it includes a commitment for $1.5 billion to be quarantined for rural and regional Australia. That is so important to so many of us in this place, who see firsthand in our regional communities the impact that the Labor Party's failure to control migration in government is having.

Of course, I've said a lot in this place about the assaults on entrepreneurialism, reward for effort and incentive to strive that this budget and its toxic taxes include, not least of which is the impact that the junior mining sector could experience. That is because the small holes that mum and dad investors backed 20, 30 or 40 years ago have turned into the big holes that spit out cash today. That's what built this country, and that's why we will fight Labor's toxic taxes tooth and nail.

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