Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) | Hansard source

Well, we just got through question time, but I can assure you there was no sunshine that came out of those answers because, right now, there has never been a time when Australians have done it so tough and yet the government continues to lord over them. This Prime Minister lords over them that they have never had it so good. We've never seen or faced a time where the government is so out of step and so out of touch with the lived experience of what Australians are living right now, where they go to the supermarket and every time they put something in a red basket, they're not just paying more, but they're getting less. It is the same with the trolley. If you're trying to build a home, you're having the costs rise every single day. The only answer the government is giving, the only answer this Prime Minister is giving, is Australians have never had it so good.

Australians want to get ahead. They want a sense of confidence for the future, and they have a prime minister who throughout question time has extolled the virtues of the government, constantly referring to how great his government is and how Australians should be thankful and appreciative for the incredible efforts from himself and his government. Well, let's look at some facts. Inflation is at 4 per cent. We are constantly seeing more debt—petrol poured on the inflation fire by the federal Treasurer—and as a consequence interest rates continue to rise. Australian households are being stretched, budgets are being stretched, and Australians are finding it harder not just to get ahead but just to keep themselves above water. We now have interest rates at 4.35 per cent the highest since 2011, and we've had 15 interest rate rises under this government. Australian families on a typical mortgage are now paying $29,400 a year. And let's remember this: that isn't $29,400 of pre-tax income; it's post-tax income. Many households simply cannot absorb that cost. So what a surprise that while we're seeing interest rates go up we're also seeing a big problem with the housing market and prices going down. And the only response from those opposite is to celebrate, to cheer, to toast falling house prices, without any recognition that that is often people's savings, their hard work, reflected in asset that provides the economic security for their family and often for a small business as well.

Household savings are now 6.2 per cent of income. Let's be clear about this: 6.2 per cent of income, down from 11.3 per cent when the Albanese government got elected. To keep their head above water, people are having to eat into their savings, just to stay afloat. GDP per capita is not higher than when Labor took office. In fact, we've seen it fall in 10 of the 16 quarters since the change of government. Australians are now paying 38.5 per cent more income tax. Think about that. Australians are trying and working harder, they're working longer hours and they're falling further behind. And it's not because they're doing anything wrong. It's because the government can't keep its mitts out of people's hip pockets. And because they can't control their spending, what do they do? They come after yours.

That is the consistent theme of a Labor government. They have no sense of respect for the hard work, savings and sacrifice of Australians. Instead, they see Australians' money as their money, as a pathway to their control, to be able to dictate the terms of how people live. Gross debt is crossing $1 trillion for the first time in 2026-27. And let's remember this: today's debt is tomorrow's taxes. So not only can they not keep their hands out of the hip pockets of Australians; they're now raiding the hip pockets of future generations as well.

The simple metrics show just how bad this government is. Cost-of-living pressure under this government: insurance up by 42 per cent; electricity up by 38 per cent, despite the incredible sunshine we've just heard all about; gas up by 37 per cent; rents up by 23 per cent; education up by 21 per cent, health care up by17 per cent; and food and grocery costs up by 17 per cent. We have an axis of arrogance with this government, where they simply are disconnected from the lived experience of Australians. Since the election we've seen a series of budget broken promises, whose only solution is to then go after more of Australians' money, because the government cannot manage its own.

We're now seeing them test the very fundamentals of economics. They have turned a blind eye to or actively stoked illegal tobacco trade through organised crime. That's pushed right through the Laffer curve, and there are now fewer legal cigarettes in the marketplace and less tax revenue. Now they're going to try exactly the same principle across the nation by shutting down businesses, actively discouraging reward of effort and incentive to get ahead, particularly targeting the many people who back themselves—the self-starters, the small businesses and those who are not going to be leaving or exiting because they have to pay more tax but because they see the decline in talent. In my lifetime I've never seen a government that has so rigidly and objectively tried to declare war on not just the country today but the future ambitions of Australians to get ahead for tomorrow. The impact of this government on Australians is going to be long, because its focus is solely on how it preserves and conserves its own power against the direct interests and advancement of the Australian people. But, more than anything else, this government is so broken because of where it sees its priorities.

The traditional model of redistribution is to take from the rich and to give to the poor. They like to dress themselves up as modern-day Robin Hoods, but the reality is completely different. This government has specialised redistribution, and its redistribution is to take from the Australian people and feed themselves. It's to prioritise their interests over the best interests and objectives of the Australian people, and what we've seen once they gain control of the hip pockets of Australians is how they dole the patronage out left, right and centre, without any accountability, to their friends and to their mates across the economy.

This government is not interested in the Australian people. This government is interested in themselves and their control. The brutal truth is they—let's just say to keep it parliamentary—break promises so easily, so calmly, so comfortably that someone could even inject another term instead of 'broken promises'. This government has never had any shame in understanding that truth is a luxury as their governance model.

Well, there is a future and there is hope. Australians do believe in and want to back themselves. They want to get ahead, and there is an opportunity to end this government and particularly its active inflation agenda. The governance model that the Treasurer has brought forward is to stoke inflation, tax inflation, spend the inflation and keep the cycle going. What they've done as a process is continuing to put upward pressure on interest rates. That can end. We can have an end to the inflation cycle this government is actively stoking if we have a government which has the courage to actually focus on ending the corruption and fraud in the NDIS, the courage to end the corruption and fraud in home aged-care packages, the courage to end the corruption and fraud in child care and the enrolment of children and, most importantly—and this is the one thing you will never see from a federal Labor or state Labor government—the courage to end the corruption in the CFMEU and, in particular, taking public money and handing it to organised crime. The fact that the Prime Minister sits in that chair and will not even audit whether federal public money finds its way into the hands of corrupt organised crime and the CFMEU is an embarrassment to his government, and every single Labor member should look at this government and feel embarrassed and ashamed to be associated with it.

We have seen it on the public record in the state of Victoria, and now that model is being nationalised across the country. It is a model that is anchored in corruption, a model that is built in stealing the money of the Australian people and the Victorian people and handing it to criminal networks, and it must end. But, even more than that, end the inflation cycle, which has meant that we have a government that acts as a silent thief shoving its hand into the hip pocket of Australians. That's why we're going to introduce our tax-back guarantee—so that $250 tax cut isn't some sort of luxury of a government but permanent and making sure the silent thieves in the night that are Labor governments can't get away with it again.

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