Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) | Hansard source

This afternoon, we witnessed an appalling act of betrayal from this government on 28 million Australians. I think on the morning after the budget the vast majority of Australians woke up with buyer's remorse, regretting the fact that they voted in an Anthony Albanese-led government, because this is a government that says one thing but does exactly the opposite. The Prime Minister promised Australians that there'd be no changes to superannuation, no changes to CGT, no changes to negative gearing and no changes to trusts. Yet, just a few short weeks and months afterwards, this government rammed through a bill today with the assistance of the Greens and a number of the teals that will significantly alter the wealth of everyday Australians. This is the greatest act of betrayal a government has committed on the Australian people in Australian political history.

Almost every day this week, I have stood up in this chamber and talked about the fact that this government is the most socialist government this country has ever seen. I've seen those eyebrows of the Speaker raised, but that is the reality. That is the reality of the dirty, grubby deals that have been done by this government and the Greens and now the teals. This wealth redistribution, this constant pushing down and punching down on the Australian people—this government's approach is a lowest common denominator approach. It doesn't want anybody to succeed. How can young Australians create wealth after this government has pulled up the ladder on them? How are they going to do it?

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been out talking to many people in my electorate. I've held lots of different forums. You haven't heard much of this government's catchphrases 'intergenerational fairness' or 'intergenerational equity' because it went down like a pork chop at a kosher wedding, particularly with young people. Young people know that this government is trying to pull the wool over their eyes. They are. This is nothing other than a rank tax grab.

Now we are seeing a situation where, before our very eyes, the prices of houses are falling. We are seeing significant drops in auction clearance rates, the lowest since the pandemic. Do you know what the auction clearance rate was in Brisbane last weekend? It was 33 per cent. In Melbourne and Sydney, it was around 45 per cent—a tick under. But, in Brisbane, it was 33 per cent. This is the housing market screaming out to the Labor Party: 'Stop what you are doing. You are killing confidence in the housing sector.' House prices are falling, and the housing minister seems to be quite happy about this. But at what point will she be happy for it to stop? What's a reasonable house price drop? Is it five per cent, 10 per cent, 15 per cent or 20 per cent?

We are seeing developers exiting the market because they can't make a property deal stack up under these new tax laws. What happens when you reduce supply and you have a high demand? Rents will go up. We saw this in the eighties under Prime Minister Keating when he tried these changes to negative gearing. It lasted less than two years before he scrapped those changes. He scrapped them. This lot—these economic geniuses on the other side of the House—want to reintroduce them. Seriously, we've read this book before; we know how it ends. This government has betrayed the Australian people. We will fight these toxic taxes every single step of the way to the next election.

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