Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor's fifth budget is a budget of broken promises—broken promises on tax, broken promises on the cost of living and broken promises to the regional Australians who feed this nation, fuel this nation and build this nation. It betrays the bush. Labor have said they wouldn't raise your taxes. They have—$50 billion in higher taxes, including $15 billion ripped straight out of the pockets of working Australians through higher personal income tax. And who pays the price for this? It's families in Shepparton, farmers across the Goulburn Valley, small business owners on every main street from Kilmore to Cobram.

But it gets worse, because, while Labor are taking more from the regions, they are giving less back. Across this budget, regional Australia has been hit with at least $11 billion in cuts: $6.5 billion gone from the Inland Rail, a project that would have taken 200,000 trucks off our roads and saved $280 million of diesel every single year; $4.7 billion gone from infrastructure; $100 million from the National Water Grid; and nearly $200 million gone from biosecurity, drought support and regional trade for our farmers.

Australians wanted relief from the high cost of living. Instead, we have inflation heading to five per cent, and energy, food, insurance and rental costs are soaring. A typical family with a mortgage is $32,000 a year worse off, and that's only going to get worse. Real wages are going backwards, living standards are going backwards, and the government response is more taxes, including changes to capital gains tax that they repeatedly said, before the election, would not happen. The people of Nicholls did not vote for this, and they did not vote for higher taxes, broken promises, cuts to their communities and a government that thinks cities matter more than regional Australians.

Now, I don't carp for the sake of it, and, if there is something good in the budget, I will acknowledge it. There is money in this budget to accelerate supporting infrastructure to open up land for housing. That was a coalition policy taken to the last election. This is a lot less money than what we had promised, but it's a step in the right direction in terms of housing developments. There is finally some money in the Growing Regions and Stronger Communities grant funds, but, overwhelmingly, this is a bad budget. And the intergenerational equity argument is a fallacy, given that young Australians are going to be paying for this government's reckless and unproductive spending for most of their working lives.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Housing changes lives. It provides safety, security, a place you can put down roots and build a brighter future. But, for decades, too many Australians have been locked out of the housing market. A longstanding shortage has made homes unaffordable, and our tax settings have made it worse. Housing has become an investment rather than a place to live. The reforms in this budget build on our work to change that, lifting our total investment in housing to a record $47 billion.

Already, our five per cent deposit scheme for first home buyers has helped more than 300,000 Australians previously locked out of the housing market into a home of their own. In my electorate, that number was 583 at last count. I met Codie in Rosebery in September 2024, who told me she bought her $690,000 new home with a five per cent deposit. We're also backing tax reform to help another 75,000 Australians realise that dream.

Beyond levelling the playing field, we're doing crucial work to address housing supply. The member for Nicholls was talking about new investment in infrastructure as though the coalition invented that policy. They said they'd go to the last election with a policy to do that. Well, we had a policy to do that under the Rudd government—$502 million at that time for the Housing Affordability Fund. It helped with projects like Plantation Palms in Mackay, where 400 homebuyers saved $20,000 each, and Edmondson Park, where 88 homes got a $25,000 rebate—hundreds of thousands of people helped then. We're also working with states to cut red tape and planning delays, to build tens of thousands of new homes.

And, of course, there's our $1.2 billion investment into crisis and transitional housing, which the member for Gilmore was talking about earlier. We're supporting people, particularly groups like women and children fleeing domestic violence, to find stable and safe accommodation in times of need. In my electorate of Sydney, we are already seeing those homes change lives. In 2024, Bridge Housing in Glebe opened its doors—stable, affordable homes. Last year, I opened the Boronia Apartments, a social housing project in Waterloo, with the state housing minister, Rose Jackson, who's doing such a great job. Last month, alongside Minister Clare O'Neil, we opened the new accommodation for the Haymarket Centre, helping people who have been homeless, many of them with mental health conditions or drug and alcohol dependence—beautiful new homes to provide them with a safe place to rebuild their lives. Living there has been a life-changing experience for people like Georgia, who I met on that day.