After a couple of tough years of droughts on the farm, Belinda, from my electorate, went back to work in town. After factoring in child care and fuel, she earns $5 an hour. That is life in the regions under the Albanese Labor government. Since Labor was elected, the Reserve Bank has raised interest rates 16 times. The cash rate is now 4.6 per cent, a 15-year high. Under this government, housing is up 24 per cent, electricity is up 40 per cent, and insurance is up 43 per cent. Under Labor, Australians are paying more for everything.

The Treasurer would like you to believe that this is all the fault of the Middle East. Excluding the pandemic, government spending is now at a record high since 1986. An analysis by HSBC's chief economist found $145 billion in spending blowouts since Labor came to office. In real terms, federal government spending grew 4.3 per cent last financial year, more than double what Labor projected in their 2024-25 budget. The Treasurer has completely lost control of his budget.

The Albanese Labor government is living well beyond its means. Labor is putting today's spending on the credit card, and tomorrow's generation will be left with the bill. For those of us that love to talk about intergenerational equity, what could be less fair than leaving the next generations of Australians with a trillion dollars of debt? The Treasurer cannot even admit what his own backbench can see. Labor's reckless spending is driving inflation.

But don't just take the words of Labor's backbench. Here's what the experts have to say about it. Deloitte's Stephen Smith told the Financial Review:

Australian governments are currently running expansionary fiscal policy even though the economy is … operating above its potential level of activity.

HSBC's Paul Bloxham said:

In an economy with a low speed limit, due to weak productivity growth, there are just less things that can be done all at once.

Warren Hogan of EQ Economics went further, and he said:

If the governments of Australia don't think about really cutting back recurrent spending quick smart, the cash rate might not just go up one or two more times.

To top it all off, earlier this month, the IMF downgraded Australia's growth and lifted its forecasts for unemployment. When everyone from the banks to the IMF is telling you to stop spending, it is time to listen.

Labor's answer to all of this is more tax—a new tax on trusts, changes to capital gains tax, changes to negative gearing and a new tax on superannuation. Tax receipts are already at their highest share of the economy in 20 years, and when you tax something, you get less of it. If you tax small business, you get less small business. If you tax investment, you get less investment. If you tax hard work, you get less work. Labor is trying to tax its way out of its own bad decisions, and it will not work. The problem is not too little tax; it is too much spending.

The coalition has a different plan. Our Tax Back Guarantee will deliver an automatic tax cut every single year, ending Labor's annual inflation tax. It incentivises sound economic management independent of who is in government. If a household or a business wants to spend more, it has to find savings, and bringing this Tax Back Guarantee forces government to do the same thing. A coalition government will scrap Labor's hits to small business and rein in spending, because every dollar this government wastes is a dollar that pushes up prices, pushes up rates and comes out of the pockets of families like Belinda's. Australians have tightened their belts. It is time Labor tightened its own.