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

I am talking about the bill. I'm constantly reminded in this chamber how members of government seem completely oblivious to the fact that government spending is driving inflation. When government is talking about how you raise the revenue, you can actually talk about how you spend the revenue as well. It's a completely legitimate part of the conversation. I also know how many Labor members get upset and interject every time we talk about their inflation addiction and how it is corroding the living standards of Australians. This bill talks about how it's going to raise revenue, so everything I'm saying about revenue and expenditure is utterly related, just as the government's inflation addiction is relevant to this bill, because that is what is driving it.

What's driving this isn't the best interests of the Australian people or improving their economic welfare. What is driving this bill is: how does the Labor Party control more of the lives of the Australian people? They've found a secret ploy which is, if they tax more, they then use that tax revenue to spend more. They do it by raising debt and then spending that as well. They're able to perpetuate a vicious cycle of stoking inflation, then taxing that inflation, then spending that inflation to take more of the Australian people's money. That's why this government is overseeing the biggest collapse in living standards in the advanced world—not a record to be boastful or proud about. Nothing in this bill seeks to reverse that; it seeks to turbocharge it.

What we have is a government that is always looking for its next inflation hit because it wants to keep the cycle going. It can't stop its addiction. We know from the last federal budget, connected all the way to this bill, which comes in part as a direct result of that federal budget, that they're going to keep finding ways to get a new hit while the Australian people live with the consequences of their inflation addiction.

Time's up for this government. The Australian people are sick of the legacy of their active inflation agenda. They're sick of the ruin and the pain that it is causing. Australians are living it every day through declining living standards—the biggest drop in living standards in the advanced world. Wages have been going backwards by up to $1,600 a year on average since 2022. In every index, in every data point and by every measure, the Australian people are going backwards. Today, not only have we seen a crossover of the $1 trillion public debt threshold; we've seen unemployment rise as well. We need a change of government. We need a government that speaks to the hope and aspiration of the Australian people, not more tax rises and the inflation addiction that we're seeing under the Albanese Labor government.

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