Madonna Jarrett (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my first speech in parliament I mentioned that one of the biggest challenges facing leaders right now is the need to address intergenerational inequality. I think everyone in this chamber should be motivated to provide at least the same opportunities and aspirations to our younger generation as what we had. That thought is the ethical proposition that underpins this bill.

I've talked to many people across my Brisbane community—parents, students, young professionals and many more. All want to see a better future for our next generation. But what I hear is: 'We're working hard. It's tough to get ahead. This system isn't working for us.' And they are right. The status quo is not working, especially regarding the big Australian dream of owning your own home. That's why we have to make a change. We have to reform the system that is holding people back.

If we look at the big reforms of our time—Medicare, superannuation, NDIS et cetera—it's been a Labor government that's had the guts to make the big decisions to deliver structural reform. With this bill, we're doing that yet again. Why? Because it goes to the heart of our core values, values of fairness and opportunity for all, and because our system is just not working. As former prime minister Paul Keating said, leadership has always been about two main things: imagination and courage. That's what this bill is.

We know Australians are doing it tough at the moment. That's why our priority in the 2026 budget is to continue to roll out responsible cost-of-living relief for people across Brisbane and Australia. This budget is about making our economy more resilient and introducing big reforms that start to address intergenerational unfairness, especially when it comes to housing.

We know that the conflict overseas is pushing up prices here—at the servo station, at the supermarket. When we first came to government, we inherited a trillion dollars of debt, bigger deficits and stagnant wages from the coalition. Since then, in every single budget we have found savings, and this budget is our most responsible yet. The budget is nearly $45 billion stronger than the mid-year update and $264 billion better than what we inherited. We've found more savings in this budget than any on record. We found $64 billion in savings, and this means we can provide real cost-of-living relief for Australians through cheaper fuel costs, funding for hospitals, free health care, cheaper medicines and more tax cuts for working Australians while still managing the budget bottom line responsibly.

As a portion of the economy, debt is below what we inherited from the coalition. That's a fact.

This budget delivers more tax cuts for workers, takes the sting out of petrol prices, helps more Australians get into a home, provides more funding for free hospitals and cheaper medicines, and supports higher wages. We're helping Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn through another round of permanent tax cuts, with the $250 working Australian tax offset and the $1,000 instant tax deduction. All up, we're cutting income taxes five times in five different ways, putting nearly $3,000 a year into the pocket of a worker on an average income by 2028.

On top of providing tax relief to workers, we're also helping keep costs down. We're cutting the tax on fuel by more than half. Without this, the people in my electorate in Brisbane and across Australia would be paying around 26c a litre more for their fuel. That's around $50 every time you fill up. We're reducing the heavy vehicle road user charge and we're giving the ACCC more power to crack down on price gouging, scammers and unfair trading practices. We're also increasing maximum penalties to corporations who do the wrong thing to $100 million and providing almost $68 million to strengthen enforcement.

We're making more medicines cheaper and securing free healthcare visits with our Medicare urgent care clinics being a permanent part of Medicare. This includes our new urgent care clinic in Kelvin Grove, which I'm very proud to have delivered. We're increasing the Medicare low-income levy, which means that over one million Australians on lower incomes will continue to pay no or a very low Medicare levy.

Since we came to government, we've proudly backed higher wages for three million of Australia's lowest paid workers every year, which has led to an increase in the national minimum wage of over $9,000 a year. Helping with cost of living—we know it's tough—is our top priority as a government, and it really is one of the top priorities in this budget. By contrast, the coalition went to the last election with higher taxes for every taxpayer and spent the last parliament opposing sensible and responsible cost-of-living relief for Australians—another fact.

This budget is also about helping people, like Mary-Cait in my electorate, buy their first home or get into a home of their own, like Karen who had lived in shared accommodation following years of unstable living. In Brisbane, we have helped more than 2,200 people into their first home with the five per cent deposit scheme. We're taking decisive action in the budget to boost housing supply and make our tax system fairer, which currently favours investors at the expense of first home buyers. This will help more Australians into homeownership and help on our work over the last four years to deliver more houses.

I don't know about others in this room, but the access to affordable housing is something that is raised with me constantly throughout the electorate, and that's why we're making a big choice to change negative gearing towards new homes and to change the capital gains tax. It would almost be delinquent of us not to do something different. Despite what you're hearing online, people will still be able to invest in the housing market. Investors can still negative gear. However, this will be for new builds, which supports our nation building. It's estimated that these tax reforms will unlock an additional 75,000 homes for first homebuyers. If you put it all together, Labor's plan is a housing system that works for Australians. We're helping Australians buy a home, levelling the playing field for first home buyers and making the system fairer.

Combined with our five per cent deposit scheme and our Help to Buy Scheme, we're shifting the scales in favour of aspiring first home buyers. We're also building 100,000 homes just for first home buyers. We're also building homes more quickly. We're tackling housing shortages from every angle, investing another $2 billion in enabling infrastructure so we can speed up the housing approvals, cutting red tape and increasing the skilled construction workforce that we need to unlock another 65,000 homes. We're banning foreign investors from buying existing homes, and we're extending that ban on foreign investors doing this until mid-2029, again, helping more Australians into a home. We're also making rental fairer and more affordable. We're continuing to work with the states and territories to get renters a better deal by strengthening renter protections and expanding long-term rental supply. We've boosted the Commonwealth rent assistance by more than 50 per cent.

We're backing Australians doing it toughest. We're supporting young people at risk get into secure housing, with additional investment in crisis accommodation, and we're doing this through the National Youth Housing Supplement. We're continuing to deliver more social and affordable homes through the Housing Australia Future Fund, including in Brisbane. We're coming at this housing challenge from every responsible angle, and this budget builds on our ambitious housing agenda. Our housing plan is pro aspirational and it is pro investment.

We're reforming the tax system for workers, businesses and future generations through the most significant tax reform package in more than a quarter of a century. Again, this package is pro aspiration, pro worker and pro investment. Our reforms include reducing the tax burden for more than 13 million workers, supporting 75,000 more home owners into the housing market, delivering over $3.5 billion in new measures that lower taxes for businesses and reducing compliance costs for businesses by $540 million a year. This is about tax relief and tax reform to make our economy work in the interests of more Australians, more businesses and future generations. It's about helping workers, it's about helping first home buyers, it's about helping businesses so that more Australians can earn more, keep more of what they earn and get ahead.

I do want to talk about negative gearing. We're reforming negative gearing and capital gains tax to help more Australians buy a home, encourage investment in new housing supply and productive assets, help fund new tax cuts for workers and, importantly, make the tax system fairer and more sustainable. This is all about backing the Australian ambition of owning your own home and encouraging investment in new homes. We're limiting negative gearing for residential properties from 2027-28 so it can be only used for new builds that add to housing supply, and we're replacing the 50 per cent CGT discount with inflation adjusted indexation from 1 July 2027 to restore taxation of real gains as well as a minimum tax on realised gains. We are not abolishing it; we're changing it. If you hear what's going on in the online media you would sometimes swear to God it was disappearing, but that's not the case.

The fundamental problem that these changes are trying to address is that people who earn an income through their labour are paying a lot more than those who earn an income through assets. Approximately 82 per cent of the population earn their income through labour versus five per cent from capital gains. It's just not fair. Right now it's too hard for many Australians to get into the housing market and get ahead. Housing prices have risen 400 per cent in the last two decades or so. They have gone from four times to eight times the average income over the past 20 years, and ownership is down seven points for young people. Just 44 per cent of Australians aged 24 to 34 own a home of their own.

Our reforms will help level the playing field for first home buyers and encourage investment flows to where it's most productive, including new housing supply. We will work with the states on further reforms to cut red tape and support homebuilding. We know more needs to be done. These reforms struck the right balance. It's part of the government's reforms to make the tax system better, simpler and fairer for workers, homebuyers and businesses.

Those opposite want to keep younger Australians down and want to continue to lock them out of the housing market. They showed their true colours voting against our cost-of-living measures, including our tax cuts. They have said they will vote against tax reform—the tax reforms that are being introduced in this bill—and that, if this reform gets passed by the parliament, they will repeal them when they are next in government. What we are doing is making fundamental change to support our communities and get more people into a home of their own. We are helping with cost of living through this bill. And I want to say to the young people across Australia and in my Brisbane electorate: this government wants to support you, to give you the best opportunities in life and to give you a fair crack. That's the Australian way, and that's what we will always fight for.

As I said at the start of this speech, as leaders we have a responsibility to ensure the next generation can live a life that they are proud of, a life that is no worse than ours. Hopefully with our ambition it's better. It requires us to set the building blocks for opportunity, the same opportunities that we had. This budget lays down the foundations to deliver just that, and I am proud to be part of a Labor government that is delivering for my community.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't quite know where to start on the paucity of this budget. As an accountant, I was always fascinated by two groups of people amongst the three. The one in the middle you didn't really worry too much about. They never really went that far ahead and never really went that far behind. The ones at the bottom I was always very interested in. They went broke, and I was always working out how they did it. They had some remarkable similarities. The ones at the top made a lot of money. Here's a trick: if you want to get ahead in life, you buy and sell capital assets. You buy shares. You buy a house. You can go out and buy yourself a block of gold if you want. But you buy and sell capital assets, and ultimately you will become wealthy if that's what you want to be. If you want to be poor then it's quite simple. You buy chattels, which are dispensable, depreciating assets, or you buy straight-out expenses: a trip overseas, a new stereo, cars, boats, bikes—all that type of stuff. And you will be poor. That's very simple.

Now, the people who buy capital assets do it by not spending their money on chattels. They've paid their tax. And then, rather than go on a new trip to Sapporo to go skiing or to Port Macquarie for the weekend, they put their money away and they buy shares or they buy a deposit on a house. This budget says to those who are prudent, 'We are going to punch you.' It says to those who are spendthrift, 'We will reward you.' It shows is no understanding whatsoever of basic business principles. This is a budget, to be frank, that is driven by one thing: the government's run out of money and they're desperately trying to find it. And they're moralising about how they get it.

Here's another fundamental thing about economics. You have your balance sheet of your assets and your liabilities, and you have your P&L, your revenues and your expenses. What we've been seeing is a whole range of expenses making their way to the P&L—cost-of-living measures, this measure, that measure. And they always come out as talking points from the Labor Party. Whenever you're in the media, out come the talking points. These are all things done for you as if they actually came out of the Labor Party's own personal pocket. They didn't. They came from the taxpayer.

They got to a point where they went gone, 'Hang on; we can't pay for this.' Rather than make the assets on the balance sheet work better, they go back to the P&L looking for revenues, and revenues on the government. P&L are called taxes. So they increased their taxes to cover the trinkets that they handed out. To be honest, they should have told people when they were handing the money out that they were going to have to get it back. A business makes the assets on the balance sheet work better to earn more revenue in such a form that the assets create the revenue and therefore pay the taxes, which go across to P&L.

So what are the assets on the balance sheet? There are two major ones. There are the actual seed assets, which governments do have a role in. They are ports, railway lines, freight railway lines, approvals for mines, streamlining things so that they can get going, dams—dams are a great seed asset. Have a look around. Where there are dams, there's wealth. You can't miss it. The other great asset on the balance sheet is the entrepreneurship of small-business people. Small-business people, by the very nature of their being in business, take risk. It's not like a salary or wage earner. They have paid tax on money. Then they invested in a business which they may lose their shirt on. They may lose money, and therefore we are always mindful of that, because we need these entrepreneurial people to work our nation's assets on the balance sheet.

What this budget does is to say: 'We're going to punish you for being entrepreneurial.' It's saying: 'If you lose your shirt'—and remember that we've had record insolvencies in small business, says ASIC, in the last 12 months, and an increase in insolvencies of over 34 per cent—'we're not going to give you anything back; if you go broke, hard luck for you. But, if you win, we're going to take 47 per cent—45 per cent plus a two per cent Medicare levy. We're going to take 45 per cent and a minimum of 30 per cent off you.' This just tells people: 'Why bother?' They'll think: 'It'd be better if I just whooped it up and had a jolly good time. That would make more sense. I've always wanted to go skiing in Sapporo. Why not go?'

In this budget, I couldn't see anything to show that they're going to build a dam. There was a freight rail called the Inland Rail—and they just made up this fantastic figure, and they got rid of that. They are going to invest in high-speed rail from Sydney to Newcastle. Now here's the trick: that probably will cover about 30 per cent of its running costs from the tickets, even if we ever build it, and will cost well in excess of $100 billion—well in excess. And so you won't build the Inland Rail, which is freight rail, which actually pays for itself, but you will build a fast rail, with an 80 kilometre tunnel, and you've put money towards it.

An example of how passenger rail just never washes its face—but it eats its head off—is the one in Melbourne called the Suburban Rail Loop. It's going broke before it even starts. So they're tipping more money into it—because that's what you do: if something's not working, obviously, you go and just put even more money into something that doesn't work! So they can find money for another passenger rail, but they can't find money for the freight rail.

What we've also seen is this statement, which is wrong, that this budget is somehow going to help people who rent. People rent because they can't buy. People don't rent houses because there was an option that they could buy, but they decided not to, so they decided to rent. Generally, overwhelmingly, people are in the rental market because they cannot afford a house. As such, they are a static block in the market. And that static block can be moved up, so there are more in houses, or down, so you're squeezing people at the bottom out to live in their cars.

What you've done, immediately, with those people can be seen no more clearly than in the clearance rate for houses in the member for Cook's great city on the weekend. It was around 80 per cent; it's down to about 54 per cent—

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting

Barnaby Joyce (New England, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

or down to 40! What that means is: it wasn't that a whole heap of first home buyers turned up and—lo and behold!—all got themselves into houses. People just decided not to buy them, and they were just removed from the market. So what you are seeing now is not a more fluid rental market where people are coming in. You're seeing the poor getting pushed out. And you'll pick them up in their cars—that's where they're off to. That's what you've done.

And the reason you've done it—and, sorry, I hate to be trite—is that so few of you have ever been in business, and you just don't get the fundamentals of how businesses work. Paul Keating actually had a crack at this. You should have read your history books, at the very least. We've got a Treasurer who did a PhD on Paul Keating and didn't realise that he'd had a crack at this and it turned into a disaster. After two years, they had to reverse it. Why? Because they were just putting people out into the streets. And it has already started. It's amazing how quickly those in the market react. They reacted within weeks of your budget. They've already reacted.

What you'll see now is just going to be a more inflexible, static market that renters can't get into. Remember: the only reason you have an investment house is so you can put a rental tenant in it; otherwise, you can't claim it—you can't claim a house that you're not getting rental income from. Well, for a period of time you can, but, ultimately, it has to be an asset that is earning money, so you can claim your expenses against it, and, therefore, to claim the interest, you have to have the rent, and to have the rent, you've got to have a tenant—a rental tenant. In looking for that rental tenant, at times the market will drive the rents down so you can get that rental tenant in. This completely and utterly turns the whole logic on its head, because now—seeing I can't negatively gear it—the only way I can get my return is to put up rents. And, if I can put up rents, I don't care about the negative gearing; I've made my money. See if I'm wrong. Let's come back here. But the trouble is, to be proven right means that we've proven that we can really, really hurt people, and the people you will hurt are the poorest.

Now let's go back to another issue. Out in regional areas, where I live, there are people who wouldn't see themselves as poor but, in comparison to what you see around Canberra, they're poor. They have a unique thing, a lot of them. They live in weatherboard and iron houses on what was allotted—five-acre blocks. The magical thing about five-acre blocks is five acres is just slightly bigger than two hectares. What's magic about two hectares? Well, if you're on a block that's more than two hectares, you don't get to see that as your primary residence. Under this rule, the block's too big. A hectare is 2.471 acres, so two times 2.471—surprise, surprise—is less than five. So magically, for all these poor people even their primary domicile is not tax-free when they sell it. Well done—stroke of genius—because there's nothing better than to make poor people poorer. That's how it works when you don't know what you're doing.

We now see the Treasurer in panic mode. It's chaos. We really don't know what's happening. The government is changing it, carving things out. The Prime Minister has come in on the show. He's worried about votes. It's chaotic. They're running around seeing what the Greens will vote for to try and pass the most substantial financial document for the nation responsible for the expenditure of well over $700 billion a year. They're running around talking to the Greens about how they're going to change it all around.

This is quite a remarkable state of affairs we're in. Now, I'm not saying that the coalition hasn't done bad budgets as well. I was present for Joe Hockey's budget. That was a train wreck. This is up there with it—an absolute train wreck. What you hear all the time from wonderful colleagues on the other side are people going through the talking points who have absolutely no idea about how business works. So here's the suggestion: if you want to make the assets on the balance sheet work, you must give a strategic mechanism that gives them an advantage. One of the great strategic mechanisms that gives them an advantage is the price of energy. To get the price of energy going, you have to have a continuous supply that's predictable and reliable, which is coal-fired power. You have to have the brains not to blow up Liddell power station but to actually refurbish it and make it bigger and better and make it work. That's what brains do. That gives you a strategic asset on your balance sheet.

Intermittent power, by its very nature, is unreliable and expensive because you have to get it to match up to 24/7 power, and people will quote you intermittent power prices but they don't quote you the $42 billion for Snowy Hydro 2.0 or the batteries or the transmission lines, or the disruption to rural communities that underpins it. So that's just one thing. If you had the bravery and the brains to make your assets on your balance sheet work better then you would actually earn the revenue to pay for the trinkets on the PNL. But where we are now is you're going to have neither. You're going to go to the prudent and say, 'If you're prudent and succeed, we're going to take half of what you made,' and then you're going to go to the liabilities on your balance sheet and say, 'For what we can't rip off prudent people, we'll just borrow from other people, a lot of them from overseas.' That is an absolute fiasco of a situation you have put the nation in.

Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's interesting, because I'm going to say the opposite—what we see is someone pretending to care about poor people when the truth is that it is the Albanese Labor government that backed minimum wages. The member for New England was a part of a government that deliberately wanted to keep wages low. That was part of their economic architecture. What we're seeing is cosplay, quite frankly, in the parliament of pretending to care about the most vulnerable people in our country—absolutely ridiculous.

Do you know what this budget is about? It is a choice. It is a choice about a first home buyer getting into their own home or someone wanting their third investment property. It chooses people who want to live in a home over people who want to profit from homes. That is a choice that this government is proud to make. This is a government that is not afraid of reform, and this budget proves it.

It's interesting, because what I heard from those opposite is that renters don't want to buy their own home. What we're seeing across Australia is the number of renters increasing, particularly the age brackets, because they cannot afford to get into their own home. But the Albanese Labor government is indeed changing the system. At the heart of it, our housing system has been broken. A part of that is because the coalition did not have a housing minister for five of their nine years. For too long, Australians' dream of owning their own home has drifted further out of reach. Young people are paddling furiously and going nowhere. Since 1999, house prices have risen more than 400 per cent. That is greater than twice as fast as incomes. That is a gap that this generation is being asked to close, an ask that has locked too many out of homeownership. Too many young people in the past have not seen a pathway to creating a deposit. Too many families want nothing more than to get a foot in the door of their own home.

That's why the Albanese Labor government is coming at the housing challenge from every responsible angle. We are building more homes, we are making rent fairer, we are also backing first home buyers and now we're making the tax system fairer. Let me start with supply because, contrary to what those opposite believe, you can't fix housing without building more of it. In my electorate alone, we are delivering 524 new social and affordable homes, and 487 of those homes are coming from the Housing Australia Future Fund, a fund that the coalition voted against, a fund they tried to stop. Now, that fund is delivering homes for Australians who need them most despite every effort that those opposite made to try and block it.

Last week, in my electorate of Swan, in a suburb called Victoria Park, we did a groundbreaking ceremony for 15 new units with an organisation called Connect Victoria Park. It is an extraordinary social housing organisation, and this is their first project in 37 years. I want to thank the CEO, Luke Garswood, for his amazing work and thank his entire team. Ten of these affordable homes will be built for older women over the age of 60 who are at risk of homelessness. This is the group with the fastest-growing rate of homelessness in our community.

What the Housing Australia Future Fund is delivering is real homes for the people who need them most. But we know we need to build more, so in this budget there's an extra $2 billion for enabling infrastructure. That's $2 billion to put in the water, power, sewerage and roads that will unlock up to 65,000 homes across the country. We're also securing social housing for more than 4,000 young people at risk of homelessness, with an additional $59 million for states and territories. All of this takes our Homes for Australia plan to more than $47 billion. This is the biggest commitment to housing this country has seen in a generation. We are changing the way that capital gains tax and negative gearing work because it is the right thing to do. Negative gearing for residential property will now be limited to new builds, and the capital gains tax discount will return to the way that it was always meant to work—that is, taxing real gains after inflation with a 30 per cent minimum rate so that everyone pays their fair share of tax.

I want to make something very clear. For too long, our capital gains tax settings have distorted the housing market—a market that is now heavily weighted against first home buyers. Eighty-three per cent of the current capital gains concessions go to the top 10 per cent of earners in this country, with over half of that gain going to the top one per cent. In the past week, that top one per cent have tried to drown out the positive generational tax reform—a reform that tips the scales back towards the average Australian. This one per cent have the loudest voices and the deepest pockets. What they do not have is the right to lock a generation out of a home.

These are Australians I hear from every day, and of course I hit the streets last week when I was back in the electorate. I spoke to a young man who was grateful for the 20 per cent cut to HECS and recognised that we were trying to make the housing system more affordable for his generation. I also spoke with an older gentleman, Garry, who explained that he loved the changes and wanted them to go further. Labor is, indeed, trying to govern for all. Just yesterday I spoke with Shane North, who called the office to say that he was absolutely behind our changes. He explained that he worked hard and bought his own home and that he wanted this for the next generation—and not because he's a father. He said it's because he sees it as, fundamentally, the right thing to do. That is my community, and I'm so proud to represent them.

Let's be honest: Australians are not mugs. Australians are struggling to buy a home to live in, not to hold as an asset. They want homes to live in. A house, first and foremost, should be a home. It's a roof, it's security and it is the place where you grow your roots and build a life, and every Australian deserves a fair shot at one. This change balances the scales. The system is tilting back towards first home buyers, back towards young families and back towards the generation that has been locked out. These changes will help 75,000 more Australians realise the dream of homeownership over the next decade. Some will say that these changes go too far. Some will say they don't go far enough. The test is not what the commentary says; the test is whether the system is fairer than it was before. Under this government, it is.

This budget is about continuing to strengthen Medicare as well. We are making urgent care clinics a permanent feature of the Australian healthcare system—not a trial, not a pilot but permanent. In Western Australia, 14 of them are now operating. Since the network began, they have delivered more than 300,000 bulk-billed visits. We are making it easier to see a doctor too. Since beginning the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program, there are now 234 fully bulk-billed practices across WA. In Swan we've seen the number of bulk-billing practices double.

We are also making medicines cheaper through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, listing more treatments so that Australians can get life-changing care without being priced out of it. We are also making new investments in our public hospitals so that the system is there for you when you need it most. In Western Australia this budget delivers $4.3 billion in health and hospital funding next year, rising to $5.1 billion by the end of the decade. This is health care that puts people before profits. This is what strengthening Medicare looks like.

I want to spend a moment on something that does not make the front pages but matters enormously to the people that it touches, and that's the child support system. When someone—typically a woman—leaves an abusive relationship, the child support system can become another tool for their partner to control that person. It can look like refusing to pay, underreporting of income, or dragging out tax returns for years. It is financial abuse and it keeps the cycle of coercive control going long after the relationship has ended. As of March this year, almost $2 billion in child support debts sat unpaid. That's money that's supposed to be used for children, money that pays for school supplies, uniforms and groceries. This budget delivers more than $182 million to make the child support system safer and to help more children get the support that they are owed.

Parents move from private arrangement to agency collect, so the government can do the chasing instead of the survivor. Services Australia will also be able to refuse applications that are clearly being used to harass previous partners. There will also be stronger actions against parents who delay their tax returns to distort what they owe. The ATO now has stronger powers. And anyone that has a debt of more than $10,000 and keeps travelling overseas can now face a departure prohibition order. Idiotic parents who refuse to pay their fair share of child support will get stopped on their junket flights to Bali and other destinations. That's because we want to bring fairness to the system, and this is fundamentally about helping children. These reforms are about our government's broader investment to end family and domestic violence—$4.4 billion. Closing the loopholes that enable financial abuse requires continued work, and this budget is a much-needed step forward.

Finally, the government has continued its commitment to our communities. As someone who loves riding to school with my kids, I was delighted to see that the budget delivered an extra $500 million for the Active Transport Fund, bringing our total investment to $600 million to build new and upgraded walking and cycling paths right across the country. In my community of Swan, the city of Canning received more than $1 million to build and upgrade paths connecting Metronet's railway with the Canning River through the centre of Canning. This rail-to-river pathway is funding that will make a tangible improvement to my local community. It will also be safer for kids getting to school, easier for commuters and better for families heading to Cannington Leisureplex.

The Albanese Labor government is also providing $840 million in community infrastructure through programs such as Thriving Suburbs, Growing Regions and Stronger Communities. This funds things like libraries, parks, community centres, and sporting and cultural facilities that make our community a much stronger place. In my electorate, the Thriving Suburbs initiative is helping the City of Belmont deliver the Belvidere Streetscape Revitalisation Project with $4.7 million from the Australian government. This will transform Belvidere into an active main street that puts pedestrians and cyclists ahead of cars, with green space for markets and events, and a pocket park, better lighting and support for local businesses. It will be a safer, greener, more vibrant heart for Belmont.

The Albanese Labor government has continued to deliver for my community. There is a long pipeline of projects. The Boorloo Bridge is one of the most spectacular bridges that we have in Western Australia. It connects Victoria Park to East Perth. It is stunning, it is beautiful, and commuters, walkers, joggers and cyclists have all embraced it. I also have to say that upgrades to Metronet have been outstanding. I was not anticipating how amazing the new train stations would be and how much more productivity there'd be in our community, but Long Park, which is a six-kilometre park, is outstanding, and I've been to at least three birthday parties at the train station now, which is something that I could not have imagined. We've also seen $5 million to upgrade Maniana Park, which is in Queen's Park, a community that has often been overlooked. And we've seen $5 million to upgrade the Langford netball centre. These are tangible ways that the Albanese government is making a difference in the community of Swan.

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased for the member for Swan that she has been able to have all of that funding through Thriving Suburbs. I just want to point out that it has actually been taken out of the Growing Regions funding and the Building Better Regions Fund that we installed in our period of time in government, likewise through local communities and infrastructure funding. These are devastating facts for our regional communities. It's nice to see the suburbs are getting that funding.

After four years of inflation under Labor, Australians are still waiting for the $275 energy savings that were promised 97 times. That promise has clearly not been delivered. Instead, energy bills have risen by thousands of dollars. Now Australians are facing what can only be described as budget shock, defined by broken promises and shifting excuses. On budget night, the Treasurer repeatedly pointed to an oil shock as the explanation, but managing economic uncertainty is the fundamental responsibility of the government. Labor was simply not prepared, and the consequences are now evident. The situation resembles a ship heading straight for disaster, just like the Titanic. Labor had previously promised to act on fuel security, but only moved when the Strait of Hormuz closed.

In this budget, the government has reverted to deflection, echoing its earlier response to global conflicts by blaming external factors, instead of accepting responsibility. If this were a school assignment, the Treasurer would receive a failing grade. This budget reflects a clear agenda of wealth redistribution. While the government proceeds confidently, Australians who value aspiration and reward for effort are increasingly worried. With a large parliamentary majority, the Prime Minister and Treasurer appear determined to push through policies that risk alienating marginal seat holders while pursuing what many would describe as a radical economic program, a socialist agenda.

Labor has repeatedly sought to divide Australians. It attempted to do so along racial lines through a referendum. It has presided over deep divisions in religious communities, and it is now creating divisions based on age and postcode through this budget. Despite rhetoric about intergenerational equity, the reality tells a different story. Younger Australians are being locked out of tax arrangements that older generations will continue to retain through grandfathering provisions. At the same time, the government is passing on approximately $1.5 trillion in debt to future generations. Yes, that means you, kids, and your kids, and your kids after them. It raises serious questions about fairness.

The budget also reduces private health insurance rebates for Australians over 65. This is presented as a measure to fund aged care, but the likely outcome is that many older Australians who have contributed taxes and paid for health cover for decades will find private insurance unaffordable. That is what I am being told. That will push them into an already strained public health system. This approach is neither strategic nor responsible. It reflects short-term politics rather than long-term planning.

Aged care remains under severe pressure. Waiting lists continue to grow, with more than 230,000 people on waiting lists for aged care. Tragically, around 5,000 people have died while on that waiting list. The system labelled Support at Home is failing to deliver that support in practice. Meanwhile, the lack of price caps has allowed some providers to charge excessive fees. Steve Wilmann, a physiotherapist from the town of Mildura in my electorate, has told me that he charges $75 for a half-hour consult, but the provider charged his elderly client $215 for those repeated physiotherapy appointments. The client came in to tell him that he was ripping her off. When he looked at the statement, it became very apparent that the provider was ripping off the client. The problem with this is that that lady's package dives very rapidly. She has no money left to continue the physiotherapy that she actually needs. This is rorting, and it is wrong.

In the electorate of Mallee, approximately 23,400 people aged over 65 hold private health insurance, representing around 59 per cent of that age group. Nationwide, about 3.2 million Australians will be affected by changes to the rebate that Labor are bringing in. While the government suggests only a small proportion will drop their coverage, those projections rely on assumptions that many find difficult to accept. Members Health Fund Alliance says, for instance, that the supposed $482 million in savings from this measure will actually trigger a $547 million increase in public hospital costs. Where is the logic? Many older Australians are already reporting that the changes will significantly increase their insurance costs, contradicting official claims by the Treasurer.

The issue of equity is not limited to age. Regional Australians are also being left behind. Inland Rail funding has been cut by more than $4 billion, with the project now expected to terminate at Parkes rather than Brisbane. That's actually quite a gap for anyone who's geographically sensitive. At the same time, more than $3 billion has been allocated to the disgraceful and corrupt Suburban Rail Loop in Victoria.

Programs that once supported regional communities have been slowed, paused or cancelled. There is no funding in this budget for the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, which I mentioned earlier. That program previously provided flexible support to councils, particularly smaller ones with limited revenue bases like many of the ones in Mallee. Communities in areas such as West Wimmera and Yarriambiack relied heavily on this funding for essential infrastructure. Business owners have assessed the cumulative impact of new measures and describe the Prime Minister as effectively becoming a 'silent partner' in their enterprises due to the scale of taxation. This, of course, has been very evident in social memes—quite hilarious, except that it's true. This has raised serious concerns about respect for electoral mandates.

Governments are expected to present their policy intentions clearly during elections. Instead, policies affecting negative gearing, capital gains taxes and trust structures appear to have emerged after the fact, despite prior assurances. Most people would call that broken promises, especially when the Prime Minister has been noted as saying, more than 50 times, that he would not be introducing changes to capital gains tax or to negative gearing. Now, this is flat-out unacceptable. There is no mandate for the Prime Minister and his treasurer to go forward with these budget changes. Earlier proposals to tax unrealised capital gains were defeated, but fresh measures targeting wealth have since appeared. These changes have significant implications, particularly for farmers in my electorate, whose returns are often weighted toward capital gain growth rather than income. As a result, they face disproportionately high impacts, with Australia now among the highest taxing jurisdictions in the world.

The budget also introduces changes affecting trusts, including those established through wills. Discretionary testamentary trusts, commonly used by families and small businesses, will now face new tax burdens if distributions vary from year to year. Approximately 840,000 such trusts exist, with around 350 000 small businesses relying on them. It's no wonder these small-business owners are worried. From 1 July 2028, income distributed through these structures may be taxed at 30 per cent. This has been described by some as a form of death tax, affecting how families manage assets across generations. Of course, you need to die for that discretionary testamentary trust to be implemented.

On housing, the government has adopted elements of the coalition's previous infrastructure proposal but at a reduced scale, committing $2 billion instead of the $5 billion originally proposed. By contrast, the coalition's regional Australia future fund aimed to ensure a fair share of housing infrastructure investment for regional communities—something not clearly replicated in this budget. In response, the coalition's budget in reply outlines a different path. Angus Taylor and Matt Canavan have committed to reversing the new tax measures. We will repeal them.

The coalition has also pledged to abandon net zero policies and halt major transmission lines to nowhere, as the Leader of the Opposition stated last week, such as the VNI West line. At community forums, including events in St Arnaud and Maryborough last week, local farmers with me have expressed strong support for these commitments. Many have described feeling heard and represented, particularly after years of uncertainty and concern over large-scale infrastructure projects. There were over 220 farmers and people in the farming communities who came together at St Arnaud last Thursday to meet with the Leader of the Nationals; the Deputy Leader of the Nationals, Darren Chester; and the leader of the Nationals in Victoria, Danny O'Brien. The community made it very clear there is no social licence for the appalling way the Victorian government has been treating them. The distress in that community has been palpable for years. I have been fighting and standing with them for years. I will continue to do so. When they heard Matt Canavan say that we have scrapped net zero and we will stop VNI West—I have had text after text after text from farmers who are so relieved that finally someone is listening to them and policy will change. Their futures are now back in front of them and in front of their children. They were so worried their futures were being ripped away.

Finally, the issue of bracket creep remains significant. While the government offers modest short-term relief, the cumulative effect of tax settings will see workers paying substantially more over time. On average, workers may lose around $2,000 due to bracket creep, far outweighing the immediate benefit that the Labor government is saying. $250 a year, seriously—I haven't got a maths head to quickly work that out, but that's not many coffees. The coalition are saying we will deal with bracket creep, and we will index income tax. It is genuine reform that small businesses and that people on incomes have been crying out for. In just four years—and it will continue to go on—people will be saving $1,000 a year, and it will improve over time. This pattern of the Labor government reflects a broad concern. Australians are being told they're better off while their lived experience absolutely suggests otherwise.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027 and related bills. I could not be prouder of the budget that my good friend the Treasurer has put forward. What the Treasurer has put together speaks to the heart of what it means to be a Labor government. It focuses on equity, on rebalancing the weights of the generations and on helping ordinary Australians. This budget is the most important and fair budget in decades. It is big and it is bold and it tackles long overdue reform to our tax system that will fundamentally change the future for future generations.

This has certainly not been easy, but government isn't easy. For those of us who genuinely care about people, like I know the Treasurer and the Prime Minister do, these decisions are really tough, and that is the hard work of government. That's what it means to lead the country to a better and fairer future. We're focused on helping people in our community to deal with cost-of-living pressures and the uncertainty of the war in the Middle East. We're building a more resilient economy and putting money back into the pockets of Australians.

It tackles some long overdue reform. It's no surprise that those who like the system as it is—stacked against younger generations and working Australians—are working hard to spread misinformation and fear. When things are new or complex, opponents unfortunately use this as an opportunity to spread mis- and disinformation. I've seen this in the offshore wind debate, and we've seen it for decades around immigration and refugees. We experienced it around these very same issues back in 2019. But the community now understands more acutely than ever that these changes must happen, and the time is now.

According to the 2023 Intergenerational report, over the next 40 years the rate of people participating in paid work is expected to decline from 66.6 per cent to 63.8 per cent. At the same time, the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple, and the number of centenarians is expected to increase sixfold. If we don't take action now, we simply won't have the supports we need to deal with this shift. For too long, our tax system has been stacked against working Australians. It has incentivised investment in housing as a wealth generator, and it has given tax breaks to people using trusts and other mechanisms to reduce their tax burden unfairly.

Housing affordability is one of the biggest challenges for our community right now. Just to be clear, this crisis is not just impacting young people, but we do see them being disproportionately disadvantaged when it comes to cracking into the housing market for the first time. This is something that worries them, and it is something that worries their parents as well. I've heard too many stories of parents who are delaying their own retirement because they are still supporting their adult children at home. People want to be able to see their kids get the same leg-up that they did, and, in so many parts of our society, this just isn't the case. No-one wants to be the generation that leaves their kids worse off than they were.

Let's talk about the capital gains tax and negative gearing for a moment as they relate to housing. Capital gains tax, combined with negative gearing, makes it harder for first home buyers to buy a home. With the way the system is set up, investment into existing property is encouraged, and that investment is putting up prices and locking out first home buyers. It's also pulling investment away from other productive parts of the economy. This also impacts families and Australians who need to move for a whole range of reasons—those who are looking to get back into the market after a relationship breakdown or older Australians on lower incomes wanting to make a change for retirement and many more. Investors have a tax system on their side, which means they can spend more than those who don't. We need to make it more affordable and more attractive to buy new homes that add to our housing stock and help to take the pressure off the existing housing market. This means more homes for renters. It means more affordable homes for first home buyers. It means a rebalance in a system that rewards wealth.

What are we actually doing? When you sell an asset, you should only have to pay tax on the real gains that you have made, not on the inflation over the time you have held the asset. That's the purpose of the capital gains tax discount. When the system changed in 1999, instead of calculating the actual inflation of an asset, an arbitrary 50 per cent discount was calculated. This was billed as a simpler alternative, but it has helped make a two-class system when it comes to assets. For some assets, particularly high-growth assets, that discount massively overcompensated for inflation, but some slower growth assets were instead taxed too harshly. What has housing been since 1999? A very high growth asset. Combine this with negative gearing. When your rental income is less than your property expenses, these losses reduce your taxable income, meaning that if you spend more on your property you reduce your overall tax burden. So investors pay less tax on high-growth property gains than they might on slower growing assets, and they can reduce their overall tax burden if they spend more on housing than they receive in rent. Overall, it gives them more money to spend. This is a system tipped out of balance.

How are we fixing it? From 1 July 2027, we're going to discount capital gains tax based on actual inflation and will apply a minimum 30 per cent tax to real gains to keep them more in line with the rate paid by an average worker. Some people will be better off, and people receiving means tested income support payments, like the age pension, will be exempt from the minimum rate. These changes will not impact the properties you already own. Importantly, if you buy a new property, you can negatively gear that property just like you can now, and you can make a choice about whether to use the old or new capital gains tax discount system. We want people to buy new homes, and our changes incentivise that.

As I mentioned, there has been a lot of disappointing misinformation about what these changes mean. We are not taxing 40 per cent on real gains. Inflation remains discounted, so the effective tax rate will be lower than the nominal marginal tax rate. According to Treasury estimates, the average tax rate on gross capital gains will increase from 19.3 per cent to 21.4 per cent by 2036-37. We will also not be taxing your family home. We never have and we never will. And we are not implementing a death tax.

I've also heard a lot of talk about discretionary trusts. Around 90 per cent of trust wealth is held by the wealthiest 10 per cent of households. Using a discretionary trust helps those wealthiest 10 per cent to manage their tax affairs in ways that are simply not available to most Australians. The number of these trusts has doubled over the past 20 years, once again, disproportionately advantaging people who can use discretionary trusts and disadvantaging Australians living on a wage. And we are not saying that there aren't legitimate reasons to use a trust. There absolutely are. But this system should not be used as a way to simply pay less tax than you otherwise would. A 30 per cent minimum tax will help ensure tax on discretionary trusts is more aligned with tax on wages, and will help to pay for the $250 tax offset for 13 million Australian workers. The changes won't come into effect until 2028, to ensure people have the time to restructure.

Are these changes easy? No. Are they necessary? Absolutely, yes. It's the fair thing to do. It is the right thing to do. It will tax every asset class more evenly on the real gains made, stop encouraging short-term speculation and encourage longer term investment. The reforms to make our tax system fairer will help 75,000 more homeowners crack into the housing market over the next decade, and that's on top of our five per cent deposit scheme for first home buyers, which has already helped 1,159 people in Cunningham.

We also recognise that there are some local barriers to building more homes quickly. That's why we're investing $2 billion in the infrastructure needed to build more homes. Our new local infrastructure fund will see roads, water, power and sewerage built to unlock up to 65,000 homes over 10 years. This includes $500 million reserved just for regional Australia. At the same time, we're reducing red tape for faster approvals and providing new pathways for migrant workers already in Australia to get their existing qualifications and practical trade experience recognised, helping address workforce shortages. We're coming at the housing crisis from every angle to build more homes, give first home buyers a fair go and support renters with stable and affordable homes.

Our tax reform is also benefiting millions of small businesses around the country. This budget invests $3.5 billion in new business tax relief to boost investment, increase cash flow and support growth. We're making the $20,000 instant tax asset write-off permanent to give more businesses more certainty to invest. Over the next five years, that will deliver around $890 million in cashflow support, save 366,000 hours of recordkeeping and around $32 million a year in compliance costs. Our permanent two-year loss carryback for companies with turnover up to $1 billion will start on 1 July 2026 and will help small businesses to return to profitability faster, give them the confidence to invest earlier and withstand volatility.

We're helping startups to grow in their first two years by introducing loss refundability from 1 July 2028, providing a tax refund before they are profitable. We'll expand venture capital incentives from 1 July 2027 to help more innovative firms access the capital they need to scale and create jobs. We'll better target the research and development tax incentive from 1 July 2028 to unlock $400 million in additional R&D by young firms per year. There's a lot of research and innovation happening right across the Illawarra, and I know these incentives will help local businesses grow and shape the future made in the Illawarra.

All up, the budget's productivity package cuts red tape and regulatory costs by over $10 billion. I am particularly excited about our new 'tell us once' approach. I can't tell you how often I hear from businesses and community organisations about their frustrations with filling in a new form with exactly the same information every time they talk to a different department, and sometimes even a different section of the same department. It's a waste of time and energy, and many just simply do not have the resources. So we're investing $654.3 million to expand the use of digital ID to safely verify identity, reduce data storage and improve access to government services online. By 2030, the Australian Public Service will work as a single, unified enterprise to deliver simple, accessible services for people and businesses. This will revolutionise the way that government engages across the country, and will transform the experience that I know so many people have. And these are just a few ways that the budget is supporting business.

I want to touch on the massive ongoing investment that this budget is making in health. I talk about this a lot, but it's worthy of another mention here. This budget has $3.5 billion in measures to improve access to health care across the country. Medicare urgent care clinics will become a permanent part of Medicare. These free clinics have been a huge success in Corrimal, in Dapto. We have seen more than 68,000 free visits to these clinics, and I regularly hear positive feedback from people across the Illawarra about their experiences. They are delivering free health care closer to home when it's urgent but not an emergency. They are taking the pressure off hospitals like Wollongong Hospital, where we know the emergency department is already under significant pressure.

We are investing in more cheaper medicines for cystic fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, various cancers and more, and we're making the RSV vaccine free for people aged over 75—and that's just to name a few. The Illawarra has a critical shortage of aged-care beds. It's one of the issues that keeps me up at night. In March this year, the member for Whitlam, Carol Berry, the member for Gilmore, Fiona Phillips, and I worked very closely with the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, Sam Rae, to ensure that the federal government made the Illawarra one of its first priority regions to access $115 million under the Aged Care Capital Assistance Program. This will fund projects that can build and open more beds within two years. This is great news, but I know it's not enough.

This budget is also investing $3 billion in aged care to deliver 5,000 more aged-care beds every year, to significantly reduce wait times for Support at Home packages and to provide better care for older Australians. At the same time, we've made personal care services like showering and dressing free to help people age in their homes with dignity. I know this one in particular is a really welcome change.

This is a big, bold and fair budget. It's a Labor budget at its core, putting fairness first and supporting Australians. I'm proud to be part of the team delivering for the Illawarra and I commend the bill to the House.

Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027 is where the rubber hits the road. This budget of betrayal is built on Labor lies and broken promises and becomes clear to all Australians. It has been sobering, to say the least, to listen to the stories of so many small-business owners in my own electorate offering a vastly different perspective to the propaganda that we are hearing from government MPs at the moment as to what these changes will have on their small businesses. So today I want to share the story of Ian, who has written to me as a local Bunbury business owner who founded his first small business 13 years ago, at the age of 26. Subsequently, he has built that business to employ 100 people. And since taking on his first apprentice in 2017, he has seen 33 young Australians successfully complete an apprenticeship and qualify as tradesmen.

He has also founded a charity that is dedicated to raising funds for childhood cancer after losing his son at the age of five in 2021. These are the sorts of Australians that I want to back, that I think the government should be backing, instead of attacking with this budget of betrayal and its taxes on aspiration.

Here's Ian's story. He's lived in Bunbury most of his life and now is proudly part of a family of five. Living a modest life as a sole income family, his dad worked at the Bunbury TAFE and then later for Wespine, something of a local institution, as it has been for decades. Ian worked in a factory as a teenager which was shut down shortly after the GFC, and his parents lost everything. This is a chap who's seen times when they're tough. Indeed, he founded his first business in 2013 with just $3,000 in the bank after being made redundant as a labourer on the construction—

Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Byrnes, on a point of order?

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry, Deputy Speaker. I just wanted to draw to your attention that the member opposite has used 'Labor lies', which the Speaker has ruled against. I ask him to withdraw.

Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To assist the House—I am perfectly happy to talk about the mistruths, the broken promises and all of the other ways in which the Labor Party are severely allergic to what the Australian people can see staring them in the face, which is, of course, the fact that they have been betrayed by a prime minister who looked down the barrel of the camera before the election and said, 'I am a man you can trust because my word is my bond.' The fact that Labor MPs in this place are now running a protection racket for this prime minister, whose integrity has been shredded by his own deceit of the Australian people, is a matter that they will be held to account for at the ballot box.

But I return to the story of Ian, who, as I said, founded his first business with $3,000 in the bank after being made redundant. For the first five years, he paid himself a salary of $80,000 a year, which was his sole income, whilst his wife was welcoming young sons into the family. After five years in business, he was the lowest paid employee in his own business. It was hard financially, he wrote to me. It was hard on his wife. It was hard on their relationship. It was stressful, and he was regularly physically unwell from anxiety and stress. But his goal was to shift the future for his family and ensure that one day they would enjoy financial freedom. That is the story of how so many Australians have become successful, and, indeed, it's something that we on this side of the chamber want to see into the future.

He wrote to me that across his business they now generate literally millions of dollars in tax every year—across PAYG, GST, payroll tax, fringe benefits tax and company tax. Governments, both state and federal, are the largest benefactors of his business, receiving far more in tax than the profit that he and his wife are left with as business owners.

His business was structured in accordance with the advice of a local Bunbury accountant. They hold shares in a trust and distribute some of the dividends that they receive through to his wife. The structure is legal. It was established within the rules, and they pay significant tax, as we discussed earlier. His wife, Ian wrote to me, has been by his side the whole time, riding the highs and lows, supporting both him and their boys through this entire time, which, as I mentioned, included the tragic loss of one of their sons at the age of five to cancer. So the changes that are proposed by this government, which were, of course, not mentioned before the election—in fact, quite the opposite. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer repeatedly promised Australians that they would not change these tax settings. These changes mean that Ian and his wife face an assault on the aspiration with which they built their business.

Having turned 40 and looking to a better future, Ian and his wife were considering selling the business that they've invested heavily in for over a decade, sacrificed and saved for and paid an untold price for through stress and anxiety and all of the pitfalls that go with being a business owner in a volatile, modern economy. But the government now tells them that their fair share needs to somehow be carved up, with taxes on aspiration that leave he and his wife angry, frustrated and feeling betrayed after 13 years of sacrifice and playing by the rules. Somehow this Prime Minister seems unable to tell the Australian people what his plans are until after an election, when suddenly those solemn promises he made 50 times can be broken.

I know they're allergic to the L word over there, so we can use every other word for it. But Australians like Ian and his wife know what's going on here. They can see it and they are angry. That's why we on the coalition side will be voting against these sorts of outrageous taxes. This assault on aspiration and this raid on the pockets of Australians are simply because this is a government that has run out of money. And when they run out of money, they come after yours. That's exactly what Ian and his wife have seen, and their story, unfortunately, is far from unique. Ian wrote that he was unsure whether other people from—

Sitting suspended from 13:30 to 16:00

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of the debate on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027 and related bills. This Labor budget is focused on relief, resilience and reform that delivers for all Australians. That's why this budget is delivering more tax cuts, a stronger Medicare and a fair go at homeownership. It's delivering more cost-of-living relief and helping build an economy that works for more people. We know that people are doing it really tough right now. Cost-of-living pressures have been compounded by the conflict in the Middle East, while at the same time we face longstanding challenges when it comes to productivity, intergenerational equity and access to housing.

Over the past two decades, house prices have risen by around 400 per cent, and incomes have not kept pace. We can't just ignore this problem and the impact that it's having on Australians, particularly young people with aspirations of homeownership. So we are taking action and overhauling the rules for negative gearing and capital gains tax. These changes have been carefully designed to help more Australians into homes and encourage the kind of market activity that leads to more supply.

We're also making other very important changes to Australia's tax system. The package of tax reform and relief in this budget will reduce the tax burden for over 13 million workers, support 75,000 more homeowners into the housing market, deliver over $3.5 billion in new measures to lower taxes for businesses and reduce compliance costs by $540 million a year. This is an ambitious Labor budget because the Albanese Labor government is committed to building resilience, bolstering the economy and delivering for businesses, first home buyers and future generations of Australians. The budget's about more cost-of-living relief, more Medicare, more aged care and more housing.

The budget contains the most significant tax reform package in more than a quarter of a century. This package of tax reform and tax relief is about making our economy work in the interests of more Australians, more Australian businesses and all those future generations. It's a package that's pro aspiration, pro worker and pro investment. The budget delivers a new and permanent tax cut for Australian workers. Every working Australian will benefit from the $250 working Australians tax offset, along with the $1,000 instant tax deduction. The working Australians tax offset will begin to apply for income earned from work for the second half of 2027 and will automatically reduce workers' tax liability for the 2027-28 income year. It will lift the effective tax-free threshold for eligible workers by almost $1,800. This is the largest permanent increase to the effective tax-free threshold since 2012-13. This new offset will provide responsible cost-of-living relief and help make the tax system much fairer for workers. It will help Australian workers to keep more of what they earn, incentivise participation for lower income workers and, very importantly, help with the cost of living. The $1,000 instant tax deduction will allow workers to deduct up to $1,000 from their taxable income without having to keep receipts. What a big difference that will make. These measures all build on the legislated tax cuts starting in July 2026 and July 2027. The combined benefit to an Australian worker on average earnings from our three tax cuts, new tax offset and instant tax deduction will be up to $2,816 from 2027-28.

We're also making changes to ensure more equal and sustainable treatment between workers earning a living from wages and those with income from assets held in trusts. Currently, discretionary trusts allow some Australians, often high-wealth individuals and families, to plan their tax affairs in ways that aren't available to most people. From 2028-29, a minimum 30 per cent tax rate will apply to discretionary trusts. This will make the tax system fairer and more sustainable by aligning tax paid by trusts more closely with the income tax rates paid by the vast majority of Australians. Importantly, primary production income earned through discretionary trusts will remain exempt, recognising the unique income volatility and seasonal nature of farming businesses.

In this budget we're creating a fairer system for first home buyers and future generations. Our reforms are about helping more Australians buy a home, encouraging investment in new housing supply and helping to fund new tax cuts for workers. Fixing the tax treatment of capital gains is necessary so that it operates as originally intended, by helping to ensure investment flows to where it's most productive. We're replacing the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount with inflation adjusted indexation to restore the taxation of real gains. We're also establishing a minimum tax rate of 30 per cent on realised gains. Importantly, income support recipients, including pensioners, will be exempt from the minimum rate. These changes apply from 1 July 2027 to all assets except new builds, where both new and old arrangements will be available to choose from. Any gains made up to 1 July 2027 will be treated under the old rules. We know that early-stage and startup businesses, particularly in the tech sector, have unique features, and further consultations are being undertaken with stakeholders to clarify the details for implementations for these kinds of businesses. We're also limiting negative gearing for residential properties to new builds that add to the supply of housing that we desperately need. For properties purchased after 12 May 2026, negative gearing can be used until 2027-28. For all existing investments made before 12 May 2026, negative gearing arrangements will remain absolutely unchanged.

These changes to the tax system will help around 75,000 Australians get into the market over the next decade. This is the equivalent to reversing around a decade of decline in Australia's homeownership rate. All of these changes, when combined with our other massive housing reforms in the budget, will boost supply of housing by another 30,000 homes over 10 years, which are all desperately needed.

The budget, really importantly, also includes an investment of a further $2 billion in a new local infrastructure fund for enabling infrastructure. Enabling infrastructure refers to roads, water, power and other systems required for all these housing projects to go ahead. This funding will be provided to local governments and our state utility providers responsible for this infrastructure. Access to the fund will require state based reforms to improve productivity in the housing sector. This means faster and simpler approvals, freeing up more land to build new homes and the delivery of a consistent National Construction Code. The local infrastructure fund will support up to 65,000 more homes over 10 years, and reforms to cut red tape have the potential to support tens of thousands of additional homes, as well as reducing regulation costs by up to $3 billion a year. This brings the value of our Homes for Australia Plan to more than $47 billion—a massive investment. We're also committing $59.4 million of funding to community housing providers to help secure social housing for more than 4,000 eligible young people at risk of homelessness.

Very importantly, in this budget, we did as we always do—strengthen Medicare and deliver better health outcomes—because we're committed to delivering on all of our plans, like cheaper medicines, a stronger Medicare, more bulk-billing, more doctors and nurses and more urgent care clinics. In this budget, we've committed $1.8 billion over five years and more than $500 million ongoing to make urgent care clinics permanent—a great initiative. These clinics provide fully bulk-billed and accessible care, taking pressure off hospitals and making life easier for so many Australians who use these services.

In my electorate of Richmond, more than 5,400 people have visited the Tweed Heads Medicare urgent care clinic since it opened in December last year, delivering vital reform for access to health care for locals. As part of this budget, we're also delivering a landmark $25 billion in additional funding for state and territory hospitals, to reach a record $220.3 billion over five years. We're investing $5.9 billion in this budget to list new medicines on the PBS, including treatments for cystic fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, some cancers and many more. Since July 2022, our government has funded over 430 new or amended PBS medicines. When it comes to cheaper medicines, across my region we've had more than 2.6 million scripts for cheaper medicines that have been filled. That's making a huge difference to so many people in my region.

Earlier this year, our government took immediate and effective action following the outbreak of the crisis in the Middle East and the absolute disruption of the global fuel supply. We cut the fuel excise by more than half, reduced the heavy-vehicle road user charge to zero for three months and doubled penalties for major breaches of consumer laws. We also secured more than a billion litres of extra fuel from March to June by relaxing the minimum stockholding obligation, underwriting additional cargoes and adjusting fuel standards, and now we're focused on building up reserves for the future and ensuring Australia's energy sovereignty. In this budget we saw our government establish a $3.2 billion government controlled Australian Fuel Security Reserve, and increase Australia's diesel and jet fuel reserves to 50 days. It's so vitally important that we do that. We're also taking action to secure more gas for Australian homes and businesses through a domestic gas reservation scheme. This scheme will require gas exporters to supply around 20 per cent of exports to the Australian market. This will put downward pressure on domestic prices while shielding our market from global price volatility and making us more resilient to any potential supply shortfalls.

As in all budgets, we're backing businesses. We're backing small businesses with this budget, we know that the key to higher wages and higher living standards is lifting productivity, and small businesses and start-ups are an important part of that. This budget contains $3.5 billion in new measures aimed at lowering taxes for businesses, increasing cash flow and supporting growth to boost investment. New measures include making the $20,000 instant asset write-off permanent, which will give businesses more certainty and allow them to invest in themselves with confidence. It's anticipated this change will slash compliance costs for small businesses by around $32 million a year, saving more than 350,000 hours on record-keeping. It will deliver around $890 million in cashflow support over the next five years.

There's so much more in this budget providing assistance to Australians right across the board. There are so many measures that we have, particularly the indexation of many social security payments and more than $3 billion for aged care, including more beds and more packages. We know how vital this is, particularly in my electorate and the large number of senior Australians that we have. This is an issue and we've responded to that with more beds and more packages. We've also got more than $180 million in this budget to make the child support scheme safer and fairer, helping to ensure single parents and their kids get the support they need. Also in the budget is more than $27 million to reduce prices for essential groceries across remote Australia.

Right across the country, wherever that need is, we have really addressed this with this budget. This really is a Labor budget built for resilience in incredibly uncertain times and incredibly uncertain global times, yet at the same time we are reforming for the future and particularly addressing that intergenerational equity that we've spoken about and that people raise all the time. We've done that through our reforms with negative gearing and the capital gains tax. This budget recognises the absolute pressures that Australians are facing today while also taking on the long-term challenges that have, in fact, been ignored for too long, particularly when it came to housing. We saw the previous government just ignore the housing crisis, and it built up worse and worse for years. Since day one, since we've been in government, we've invested a massive amount in all areas of housing. Whether it's that five per cent deposit or whether it's making these important reforms, plus our massive investment in social and affordable housing and massive building right across the country, we are absolutely committed to making sure that Australians—particularly young Australians—can access homeownership.

In this budget we are delivering cost-of-living relief without losing sight of productivity, housing supply, energy security or that really important intergenerational fairness. This budget invests in workers, backs small businesses and strengthens Medicare. One of the biggest issues in my electorate is accessing healthcare. We've seen more than 30 GP clinics that are now fully bulk-billing. It's making a huge difference to locals.

This budget also supports vulnerable Australians and really, at the end of it, also helps more people achieve the security of their own home, because we want to build an economy that works for everyone, no matter where you live. Particularly for areas like mine in regional Australia, this budget really provides a lot of assistance. We want to build an economy that's stronger, fairer and, really importantly, more resilient to the many global shocks that we have seen. We're building that economy not just for today but for future generations of Australians, particularly through our housing reforms to ensure there's an even playing field for younger Australians. And the response to this has been overwhelming because young people have had so many difficulties in accessing housing.

This is a government that acts right across the board in terms of providing support now and building for future generations.

Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Energy Security and Affordability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's good to follow someone else speaking on regional Australia and the impact of this government's budget. We are on a unity ticket; this is very much a Labor budget. I'm going to address some of the issues that I have with this budget. I think it is important to reflect on both the local impact and the broader one. Obviously, I'll start locally with the news we had dropped two days before this budget: the announcement that the government would not be pursuing Inland Rail to Toowoomba, which has a huge impact on our local economy and on local confidence. This was a promise that this government had made that the Labor, when in opposition, had made that they would maintain. We were never under any doubt that this project would be delivered. This was a project that was going to deliver huge benefits to our region. It was something that we were looking forward to. As I've mentioned in other speeches, we invested. Locally, I can speak to one project where over $50 million of private investment was made in preparation for Inland Rail coming in. There are other sites that have also made those sorts of investments.

To us, to have that project taken away from is was a big hit. It was a big hit to our plans for the future, for our future economy. It's a project that we are going to fight to try and maintain. It's a project that we think still stacks up, and we hope very much that the government will listen to our pleas to bring the Inland Rail to Toowoomba. We still think there are plenty of benefits that can be achieved from our region and for the nation by doing so.

Before I before I go to more details, I want to speak on one issue that this budget does address which is a worthy point of conversation: what an east-coast gas reservation might look like. I think this is an important conversation. We are going through a period of time where it's very clear that, in terms of our resources, self-sufficiency is something that has had a heightened level of acceptance that we need to address in this country. The government, to their credit, have started that conversation. I think they have some issues to address, and I want to I want to lay out the practicalities of what it takes to establish an east-coast gas reservation. Ninety per cent of the gas on the east coast comes from Queensland, but 90 per cent of the usage on the east coast is in the southern states and mostly in Victoria. That gas travels through a pipeline from Queensland to Victoria that is currently at capacity. There is no more reservation. There is no more room. It's at capacity. To have an east-coast reservation, you're increasing either the number or the size of that pipeline or you are opening up new gas projects down south, at the southern end of that pipeline. That's what an east-coast reservation actually, practically looks like. People have this idea that the government's proposing to build these tanks or some sort of storage capacity that's got to be around. No, there's a pipeline that's already at capacity. You can't push more gas through it. We're already at capacity, so to actually address this requires some significant change—far more than what the government has envisioned in this budget. I think that shows this government's lack of practical understanding of what it takes to do things. You can talk about a gas reservation all you like, but this will not create that. It's a challenge to the government. Can it put on paper something that can actually solve the problem it seeks to address? I look forward to that.

But this budget is the highest taxing budget ever. Goodness me! In this economy, at this time, it is the highest taxing budget ever. What a challenge for future treasurers! How do you address the impact this will have? What this budget does in addition to being the highest taxing budget ever is it banks in 10 years of deficits. When you talk about the performance of a Treasurer or a government—the economic credibility, its legacy—one would think that the economic situation it leaves after it is the most important factor in determining that legacy. A government that leaves you a decade of deficits, after having delivered the highest taxing budget ever, that's an incredible legacy and one that this government should be ashamed of. It is also the highest spending budget in 40 years, outside of the pandemic. In the first term of this government, we heard about spending restraint from the Treasurer. I'm not sure that the word was being used as it is commonly understood. We have the highest spending budget in 40 years. There is no restraint. There is no spending restraint here at all!

If we look back to 2019, at the last budget before the pandemic hit, since then we have seen spending almost double. So we went through the pandemic. We agreed. Labor, then in opposition, supported and, in fact, wanted us to spend more and, on multiple occasions, pushed us to spend more than we were spending in our pandemic response. Having gone through that, we haven't reduced our spending at all. That spending hasn't come down. We've actually continued the same heightened levels of spending. We didn't come down afterwards, and I can't find the justification for that. During the pandemic, it was the decision of the government of the day to provide support to the states to allow them to individually manage how they responded to the pandemic. We provided that. We made that decision. What is the justification for keeping spending at that rate now? I think that's an important conversation for us, because it does have an impact.

There is no surprise that in a period of continued heightened government spending that we are seeing inflation continue to stay high. In fact, homegrown inflation, as confirmed in this budget, will be five per cent. That's domestic inflation; that's not imported. That's what we're doing here. That's the result of domestic issues. We can't blame wars overseas for this. And that five per cent is above every other developed nation. There is a long-established link between government spending and inflation, and, sadly, we're seeing it here again.

Back in 2024, I decided to raise my voice in public—much to the chagrin of the leader of my party of the day—that I thought that we needed to address the growth of NDIS spending. I made the argument then that this was becoming a very bad way of doing a very good thing. There's not a single Australian—and I stand very strongly with them—who feels that we shouldn't be spending some of our tax dollars looking after our most vulnerable and disadvantaged people. There's no question whatsoever. I'm proud of that. It makes us a good nation. It's something that we should always strive to achieve. However, it has been clear for a long time that the growth of the NDIS has been at an extraordinary rate. I'm very happy and comfortable looking back at my public comments at the time, which I then doubled up again in 2025, repeating calls for the government to look at reforming the NDIS—again, much to the chagrin of the leader of my party of the day.

I recall very clearly being absolutely shut down by Labor when I dared to raise the issue and say that it was worthy of reform, that it was worthy of keeping, and that to keep it, it required reform. I was the subject of something of a scare campaign. According to that scare campaign, it was my intention to kill the NDIS and to cut services—absolutely not. What I was concerned about was that there was a program in place that was disincentivising care and support for the most needy. We have seen that time and time again. If you have a service provider who has the option of giving care at the same rate to someone with high needs versus someone with mild autism—I'm talking about the personal, intimate care that is required to be provided—they are going to choose the person with mild autism. They are not going to choose the person with high needs. Why would they? It's a much harder job, but they're being paid at the same level. I have seen that over and over again. We are disincentivising, through this scheme, care towards those who need it most. Sadly, I saw that firsthand. Residents in my electorate made me acutely aware of that, and I thank them for doing so.

So I'm glad that we are finally addressing the growth of the NDIS. I think it's an important step. I would point out that most of the steps that have been put forward by Labor are steps that were previously put forward by the opposition, some also by the crossbench. They're steps that are quite reasonable. They were subject to scare campaigns then. The government is now putting them forward. Unlike the government, I won't fight back. I'm very happy to engage. I think it's an important conversation. It was important when I was saying it then, and it's still important now.

The other issue I want to talk about—and I think this has been the subject of much conversation with regard to this budget—is the changes to tax settings. I refer particularly to those relating to housing—negative gearing and CGT. For a long time both sides have argued, based on evidence from a study in New Zealand, that to make such changes would result in a reduction in the supply of housing. There is evidence of that, and that's always been offered as a reason not to make changes. Much to the chagrin of my party's leader of the day, I said I was always open to this conversations. I though we should look at it and have a discussion about it, but I had always had the proviso that we should do so in a way that never puts downward pressure on supply. That was my obvious proviso: if you want to talk about these changes, we must maintain supply. Clearly, at a time when supply is at its lowest level in our history, any changes can't negatively impact supply.

When the budget paper came out, I got to page 158 of Budget Paper No. 1 and read very clearly that the result of the government's taxation changes would be 35,000 fewer homes built by the private sector. It was exactly as everyone had been concerned about—that if done in an inaccurate way, the result would be a downward pressure on supply, and that's exactly what we have. Thirty-five thousand fewer homes will be built by the private sector as a result of these changes. There is nothing that can make that a good news story—absolutely nothing.

When you frame this within the context of a budget that was being sold as one that addressed intergenerational inequality—the disparity between those who have and those who want to have—this is a laughable attempt at addressing the concerns of young people who are trying to get into property, because what it is doing is reducing the supply of housing. A basic, entry-level view of any economic theory will show that, if you maintain demand and reduce supply, prices will go up.

But it is much worse than that for young people, because this budget confirms that there will have been two million people arrive in Australia during the first two terms of this Albanese government. This is an issue of simple mathematics. Not only are we reducing the supply of homes; we're increasing demand. You add both of those things together and the mathematics go one way: prices go up. Sadly, there is no moral outrage that one can apply to mathematics. It simply is. That is what will happen. Those are the courses that this government has chosen to take—to reduce supply and to increase demand. Prices will go up. So, on any assessment, does this budget help young people? No. It reduces their opportunities to get into affordable housing. It will not help them.

But there's one thing about this budget that I think really rubs people who I've spoken to about it. The idea that we would be introducing a death tax in 2026 is extraordinary, and I think that will hurt people a lot—particularly young people, who are looking ahead.

Young people in my electorate wanted to have the opportunities we had. They wanted to have the pathway to prosperity that was created for my generation. It'll have to be a different pathway—sure. But we have to create it. That's our job. We have to find that. And this budget does not find that. There is no new pathway to prosperity. All there is is the closing of a door for the young generation, who are looking ahead and saying, 'I wanted that,' and now can't have it.

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a government that has, I think, been characterised by the fact that it has made hard decisions. We make the hard decisions. We're making the hard decisions because, effectively, they're the right decisions to make. You see that in the debate around this year's budget, and in our record of delivery over a period of time, because we are focused on helping workers, we're focused on helping first home buyers and we're focused on helping small businesses, so that more Australians can earn more and keep more of what they earn and also get into the housing market and get ahead.

The tax package is pro aspiration, pro worker and pro investment. And that is very good. It is very good for my incredibly diverse and aspirational community in my electorate of Wills.

We've had a quarter of a century, now, of a tax system that has encouraged the misallocation of investment and resources in our economy, and we've had a 2½ decade productivity problem in our economy as well. It may be that, on the other side of the aisle, it's all too hard—it's just too difficult to make those hard decisions to try and make sure that we have a better future.

But we want to encourage people to make investments, because there are good economic outcomes, not just good tax outcomes, that flow from that. That's why the government has cut taxes for workers five times and in three different ways—that's what we've done. We cut taxes in our first term. There was another tax cut in July, and another one the July after that. And this week we will introduce the legislation to cut income taxes further—including a $1,000 instant deduction, and also the working Australian tax offset of $250.

We're reforming the tax system to support 75,000 more homeowners into the housing market—that's significant. We're also investing an extra $2 billion for enabling infrastructure to support up to 65,000 more homes, taking our Homes for Australia plan to over $47 billion in investments over our time in government. We're also helping to secure social housing for more than 4,000 eligible young people at risk of homelessness, with a $59.4 million package for states and territories.

Now, it may be the case that those opposite are unaware of history. But they risk repeating their history, and making the same mistakes that they've made in the past, if they don't support these tax reforms—if they once again vote against tax cuts and against aspiration.

The aspiration to homeownership is at the heart of the budget that we delivered recently. House prices have risen over 400 per cent over the last two decades or so. They've gone from four times to eight times incomes over the past 20 years. And ownership for young people is down by seven per cent. These are all facts that they can't hide from. And our reforms, frankly, will be helping to level the playing field for first home buyers and to ensure investment flows to where it's most productive, including new housing supply.

Unfortunately, in the information landscape in which we all operate, there's been a lot of misinformation about the recently announced changes to the capital gains tax discount. Let's just have a bit of clarity and the facts.

Under the Howard government, a 50 per cent capital gains tax discount was applied to the sale of all assets that had been held for more than 12 months. It basically cut that tax in half, given that discount. That system distorted the market by encouraging people to invest in established houses, not units or shares. On average, the 50 per cent discount tends to overcompensate investors in housing for inflation and to undercompensate investors in units, especially in the regions, and in shares.

The return to indexation will mean, in future, that only real capital gains are subject to tax, supporting investment in assets like shares and medium- and high-density housing. The announcement that was made in the budget was to replace the 50 per cent CGT discount with inflation-adjusted indexation from 1 July next year, to restore the taxation of real gains, as well as a minimum tax on realised gains. It's all about fixing the tax treatment of capital gains so that it operates as originally intended, helping to ensure investment flows where it's most productive.

The return to indexation will mean in future that only real capital gains are subject to tax, supporting investment in assets like shares and medium- and high-density housing. The announcement that was made at the budget was to replace the 50 per cent CGT discount with inflation-adjusted indexation from 1 July next year to restore the taxation of real gains, as well as a minimum tax on realised gains. It's all about fixing the tax treatment of capital gains so that it operates as originally intended—helping to ensure investment flows where it's most productive. Returning to indexation will mean in the future only real capital gains are subject to tax, supporting investment in assets like medium-density housing, thus ensuring everyone pays a fair share when they make a capital gain. Income support recipients, including pensioners, will be exempt and there will be a grandfathering of gains made before 1 July. As we go through this process before the implementation, there is a lot of consultation going on with business to make sure we get all of this right.

There's been a lot of discussion as well about the negative gearing changes that we're debating. Our negative gearing changes put homeowners first and will help more Australians get a foothold in the housing market. Going forward, we are limiting negative gearing for residential property so it can only be used for new builds. You can still negatively gear. You can do it on a new property, and it stimulates new home builds. We knew that something had to change. Too many people, too many young people, have been locked out from owning property by the fact of the distortions in the systems for the last several decades. But we're making these changes in a very responsible way.

What's disappointing is partly the misinformation that has flooded the information landscape, conflated with rather, I think, deceptive messaging around and a misunderstanding of what's happening to confuse people and to scare people. We heard the previous speaker talk about scare campaigns. Well, this has become almost a kind of characteristic of our current information landscape—that it's almost expected—but that's not good enough. This might not reach many people, but at least we can actually debate in this place what we're doing and why we're doing it. Hopefully, people can see and hear that.

Australians who are currently negatively gearing will not see any change to their arrangements. That's just a fact. They'll continue to be able to negatively gear. Nothing changes for properties purchased before the budget. This includes contracts entered into. And if you want a negative gear going forward under the new system, you can. You absolutely can. We ask that you contribute to the national goal of building more homes by negatively gearing on new builds. That's a fact. People who've been online recently would have seen all these AI generated images of the PM as a silent partner, taking 47 per cent of profits from a small business or start-up. I'm sure this has been spread around everywhere by bots and others who want to create mischief and further misinformation. Well, these posts are referring to 47 per cent marginal tax rate that has existed for more than a decade. It doesn't change in this budget at all. You've got all of these memes going around and all the rest of the social media campaigns by the proponents. One of the main proponents of the social media campaign actually explained the issue with the memes by saying, 'Unfortunately, the more nuance you have, the quicker someone will scroll past and not really care about what you're saying.' That's the motivation for putting information out to misinform the Australian people? It's remarkable. So let's not scroll past right now. I've got a small audience here, maybe a few more people that might watch this if I put it up on social media. Let's not scroll past.

There are four key capital gains concessions for businesses that are unchanged in the budget. We are supporting small businesses to get ahead, and it's a big focus of this budget. We're actually consulting and working with the sector on how the new rules will actually apply to start-ups. As I mentioned, there'll be a consultation process going forward on some of this. The fact is we're delivering $3.5 billion of tax relief to new businesses, which includes the $20,000 instant asset write-off becoming permanent. That's going to wipe away around $890 million in cash flow burden. We're delivering a permanent two-year loss carry-back so that small businesses can return to profitability faster and have the confidence to invest earlier and withstand volatility. We're introducing loss refundability to help startups grow in their first two years. We're expanding tax incentives for venture capital to help unlock more investment in young and expanding businesses, in startups, in transforming ideas into great businesses that can be productive in the economy.

How come there are no memes on that? How come no-one's putting that out on social media in the same way and spreading that information? Guess what? If anyone knows anything about investing in small businesses, you know that upfront is where you need that support—when an idea is just an idea, when there's the passion of the entrepreneur. So all the things I've just talked about—the $3.5 billion in tax relief and tax measures to help small businesses and startups—is actually what matters. And then we've got all this misinformation about how on the back end the discount through indexation will somehow be terrible for the investor down the end. Well, I'll tell you what—some investors and some of these businesses will actually benefit from an indexed tax discount, depending on inflation rates.

So there's a lot of misinformation in the ecosystem, but we know this: small businesses are the backbone of the Australian community and of employing people. This government will continue to support them through all this noise, through all this white noise and this smoke and mirrors, by delivering through these bills into law the support that they need to be able to be successful in small business. So we change the culture and the distortions that have occurred for decades, which have funnelled people away from investing in small businesses. As some of the people on the other side would know, there are exemptions all the way through already for businesses with a turnover of under $2 million or assets of less than $6 million, so 90-plus per cent of small businesses are not affected by any of these changes.

Some people online have also said, 'This is so unfair to young people who are trying to save a deposit by investing in the share market.' But the truth is that most young people—just take a walk down your local electorate; it's certainly the case in mine—don't make income from capital gains, buying and selling assets. They make it from working. Taxpayers aged between 18 and 34 account for—wait for it—four per cent of the total value of capital gains declared by all taxpayers. Let's say that again. Four per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds represent capital gains declared by all taxpayers. Let's quote the Betoota Advocate. That's a good one. They said it with their headline: 'Regional supermarket employee has no option but to walk away from her diversified share portfolio thanks to Labor'. It's funny, but it's true.

Young people who can't afford to own their own home should not be subsidising the underperforming investments of the asset-owning class. That's just a fact. I think it's an important one to put out there. It's unfair, and that's why we're changing it. I know it's hard, and it's been difficult for previous governments of other political persuasions to make these tough decisions, but we're doing it because it will make a difference in the future. I guarantee you that in five years time we'll look back on this and think: 'Oh my God, look at all that crazy misinformation that was flying around. These changes were so important.'

Every year, there are almost 40,000 children and young people who have nowhere to live across this country. I want to talk about the really vulnerable now. They're certainly not part of that four per cent making income through assets. They have nowhere to live—40,000 too many. Behind every statistic on youth homelessness is a young person who deserves stability, opportunity and hope. Every night, thousands of young people across Australia face uncertainty about where they will sleep, and that is simply unacceptable. We're having a debate about young people who are going to be impacted by these CGT discounts and so on; 40,000 of them haven't even got a place to sleep.

So let's talk about what really matters right now. Early intervention and community support can change the trajectory of a young person's life. That's why the Albanese Labor government is investing $60 million—$59.4 million, to be exact, in case I'm accused of misinformation—to help vulnerable young people access stable housing and avoid homelessness. That's the national youth housing incentive, which fixes a structural flaw in Australia's housing system that has discouraged providers from offering tenancies to young people and disadvantaged youth housing proposals in funding rounds. That flaw, known as the youth housing penalty, makes young people financially unviable tenants. We're changing that. It's meant in the past that generations of young people haven't been able to access social housing to escape homelessness. We're changing that. Today, around only two per cent of social housing tenants are under 25, despite young people making up almost 15 per cent of Australians experiencing homelessness.

This is smaller in the grand scheme of things in this big budget. I talked about billions of dollars supporting small business. But this investment is really important for 40,000 young people who can't find a home or find a place to sleep tonight. That's the culmination of years of work and advocacy—and I want to congratulate them—by the Home Time campaign, who've elevated the voices of young people who have experienced homelessness. That's an investment in the youth of this country. That's what matters. This whole budget is about what matters for the Australian people.

Nicolette Boele (Bradfield, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There was a gas-tax shaped hole in the budget, a $17-billion-per-year sized hole. We could all see it. We were all disappointed by it. In the lead-up to this year's budget, Australians of all political persuasions, people across my electorate and people across the entire country were hoping that this would be the budget where we finally secured a fair return on our natural resources. These resources are owned by the public and yet they're given away often royalty-free and on minimal tax to multinationals and Australian corporations that rake in literally billions of dollars every year. Unfortunately, this budget does nothing to change that.

Since 2022, the absence of a 25 per cent tax on gas exports has cost us over $70 billion. This is a missed opportunity of outstanding proportions—$17 billion a year is around $50 million a day, more than $2 million an hour or $577 a second. All that revenue is flowing to corporate coffers instead of the public purse. These figures sound large, but what do they really mean in practice? What could we do with an extra $17 billion every year? Well, the budget papers make it really easy to put these numbers into perspective. A figure of $17 billion is around $1.5 billion more than the cost of the entire childcare subsidy. It's $4.5 billion more than the total federal funding for public schools. It's more money than the Commonwealth provides to the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. With an extra $17 billion, we could make meaningful improvements to any of these public services, or we could choose to do something else—to invest in some of the things that we all want but are so often told that we can't afford, to fund some of the nice things that other countries have, like free dental care, free university or a film and television industry that's properly supported by this government. The list of possibilities is considerable. Although $17 billion wouldn't fund everything on the list, it would allow us to fund pretty much anything and to improve countless lives across the country in the process. But that remains out of reach so long as we continue to let gas corporations off the hook.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions, alongside think tanks like the Australia Institute, advocates like Konrad from Punter's Politics and so many others have worked really hard over many years to bring this issue to the fore. They've helped build this into a movement that now extends right across the country. Today, everyone knows the government gets more money from students repaying their HECS debt than from the petroleum resources rent tax. Everyone knows that the government pulls in more cash from taxing beer than from the PRRT. Everyone knows that the system is broken and isn't delivering for anyone except the gas lobby. The government knows this as well. They're just choosing to ignore it. The longer they wait, the clearer the polls become.

A majority of voters across the spectrum, from Labor, the Liberals, the Greens, One Nation and Independents, support a 25 per cent tax on gas exports. There is a clear and growing consensus that Australians should receive a fairer return on our publicly owned resources, and yet the Australian government continues to dig in its heels. It claims that the industry already pays its fair share but uses statistics derived from the gas lobby to support these claims. It says 'our gas is keeping the lights on in Tokyo' but neglects to mention that Japan resells vast quantities of gas than it imports from Australia. And Japan makes even more money by taxing the gas that they import from us than the money we make by taxing our own exports to them. Time and time again, the government repeats lines from the gas lobby. It's just an undeniably clear case of vested interests versus public interest in this situation—and the government continues to wonder why its primary vote is consistently declining.

In the lead-up to the budget, the Prime Minister dismissed this reform as 'populist'. This is a mistake. When the Prime Minister calls this proposed reform 'populist', he is seeking to diminish your valid concerns. He is trying to convince you that it's unreasonable to desire a fair return on the resources that you own. He is trying to persuade you that you simply cannot ask for more of what is already yours. And when he blocks this reform, he's not just disregarding the will of the people; he's hamstringing his own government's ability to deliver the services and cost-of-living support that we all so desperately need. And that's exactly what we saw in the budget. We've heard two things from the government in the past few weeks. First, we heard about the need to find savings wherever we could. And second, we heard that this budget would be all about tax reform. By deciding to leave a gas export tax off this budget, the government has directly undermined both of these goals.

If the government chose to raise that extra $17 billion, it would be under far less pressure to reduce funding and cut valuable services. We would not, for example, be forcing people with disabilities to bear the brunt of government savings through NDIS cuts. And if this budget was focused on tax reform, why did the government leave the most obvious area for reform untouched? In fact, the budget shows revenue from the existing tax on offshore gas, the PRRT, is actually going down. It's going down from $1.9 billion this year to $1.25 billion in 2029-30. This projected decline is coming despite high international gas prices caused by the wars in Ukraine and Iran. It is coming down despite huge increases in gas export volumes. And it is coming down despite the changes made to the PRRT in 2023, which the government claimed would increase revenue.

In light of this, you'd be thinking the government would be chomping at the bit to secure an extra $17 billion a year. Although it has chosen to let this opportunity pass, the fight is not over. The budget is not the only window for reform. The government could turn around tomorrow and announce a 25 per cent gas export tax if it so chose to. And I believe the pressure will continue to grow. My colleagues on the crossbench and I will continue beating the drum on this issue. We will be keeping your voice alive and loud; we'll be giving voice to your demands. And with your help, it won't be long before the government simply can't afford to ignore us anymore.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When Australians talk about cost of living, they want to know if they can afford to see a doctor, if they can afford to fill a prescription, access mental health assistance, age with dignity, put a roof over their heads, keep the lights on and pay the bills. And that is why this Labor government's priorities matter. We stand for strengthening Medicare, strengthening public hospitals, making medicines cheaper, supporting older Australians, investing in mental health and building a cleaner energy future that lowers bills for all Australians, and that's what we are delivering.

Labor believes all you need to access health care is your Medicare card, not your credit card. That's why we delivered the single largest investment into Medicare in Australian history through our bulk-billing reforms. For too many Novocastrians, seeing a GP had become harder and more expensive. Bulk-billing rates had been in decline for years. People were putting off appointments because they simply could not afford them. The Labor government stepped in because universal health care is not something you should allow to slowly disappear. It is something you fight for. In this budget we are delivering six new, fully bulk-billing clinics across Newcastle, the Hunter and Central Coast regions. That means more families are able to see a doctor without worrying about the bill at the end of the appointment, more pensioners getting care earlier and more people being able to take sick children to the GP before conditions worsen. That's what Medicare is supposed to do, and we are not stopping there.

We've made Medicare urgent care clinics permanent. These clinics are changing lives. Across Australia 136 urgent care clinics have opened their doors. In our own community almost 30,000 Novocastrians have already visited the Charlestown clinic since it opened in November 2024. Think about what that means. It means that nearly 30,000 people got urgent medical attention free of charge, without having to sit for hours in an emergency department. But it's not just the convenience of not sitting in the department that's important. It's the fact that we don't want people who need primary health care presenting at a tertiary health institution like a hospital. Nearly 30,000 people have received free care close to their homes. That's nearly 30,000 people who avoided the stress of unnecessary hospital visits. This is practical reform. That is what investment in health care looks like.

While we're expanding access, we're also strengthening the backbone of our healthcare system—our public hospitals. Labor has delivered an extra $25 billion into public hospital funding. That funding matters in communities like Newcastle. It supports frontline workers. It helps reduce pressure on emergency departments, and it helps hospitals deliver the care Australians deserve.

We also know that affordable health care means more affordable medicines. There is not much point in getting a prescription if you can't afford to fill it. That is why Labor cut the maximum cost of medicines on the PBS to just $25 a script and only $7.70 for concession card holders. In my community of Newcastle there's been almost $3 million that people have saved in cheaper medicines administered since those changes were brought in. That's $3 million sitting in people's pockets that they wouldn't have otherwise had. This is real cost-of-living relief. It means that someone managing diabetes, heart disease, asthma or chronic pain can save hundreds of dollars a year. It means older Australians are not forced to choose between groceries, medicines, petrol and rent. That is the difference Labor governments make.

We're continuing to modernise Medicare for the way Australians live today. Through 1800MEDICARE, Australians can access free 24-hour telehealth advice and care right from their own home. For regional communities, busy families and people who cannot easily travel, that service is incredibly important. Health care should not stop at the door of a clinic. It should meet Australians where they are.

One of the areas where this government is driving the most significant change is around women's health. For far too long women's pain has been dismissed. Conditions went undiagnosed. Essential treatments were unaffordable. Women were just told to put up with it or that it really wasn't that bad. This government has said, 'Enough,' and that is why Labor delivered the biggest investment in women's health in Australia's history. We've opened 33 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics across the country. For the first time in more than 30 years new contraceptive pills have been added to the PBS. We've reduced the cost of menopause and endometriosis medicines to just $25 a script. We expanded bulk-billing for long-term contraceptives like IUDs, saving women up to $400. These reforms are not symbolic. They are practical, they improve lives and they restore dignity. They send a message that women's health matters.

Mental health matters too. After years where Australians struggled to access support, Labor is rebuilding mental health care backed by Medicare. We are investing more than $1 billion into mental health services. We're opening 92 Medicare mental health centres across Australia, including one in Charlestown. We're upgrading the Newcastle headspace into a headspace Plus service and, through the Medicare mental health check in, Australians can access free therapy and support from their home, because mental healthcare should not be available only to those who can afford expensive private treatments. Every Australian deserves support when they need it, and every parent deserves to know that their child can get help early.

Labor also believes that Australians deserve dignity as they age. Older Australians built this country. They raised families, worked hard, paid taxes, volunteered in their communities and helped shape the nation that we are today. They deserve respect and, after a decade of neglect in aged care, Labor got to work. We put nurses back into nursing homes. We've delivered the biggest aged-care reforms in a generation and we're now building on them with more home-care packages, more aged-care beds and more choice for older Australians and their families. If older Australians want to stay at home for longer—and many do—they should be supported to do so safely and independently. We listened to concerns around dignity in care and we're delivering reforms that put people first.

Australia is also facing another challenge that goes right to the heart of cost of living, and that's housing affordability. For too many young people, homeownership has felt further and further out of their reach. People who work hard, saving hard and doing everything right have felt that they've been locked out of the market. This government understands that frustration. Indeed, it's not just a frustration of younger people, as important as that is. Their parents—indeed, sometimes their grandparents—are coming to me sharing that frustration, worry and concern about their children or their grandchildren not having the same kind of opportunities that they've had in life. It's really exactly the reason why Labor's pulling every lever available to us as a Commonwealth government to make homeownership a reality again. We're increasing housing supply, we're building more homes we are supporting renters and, importantly, we're delivering tax reforms now that create a fairer and more efficient system that actually helps first home buyers compete. Young Australians should not feel like the system is stacked against them when they are trying to buy their first home, and these reforms are about restoring balance, about making sure that the dream of homeownership is not reserved for those with wealth behind them but remains achievable for teachers, nurses, tradies, retail workers and young families.

For first home buyers, this matters. It means a system that works better for the people trying to get into the market, not just for the people who are already deeply invested in it. It means more opportunity, more fairness and more confidence that hard work can lead to security. Labor knows that there is no single fix to the housing challenge, which has been built up over many decades, but we know also that doing nothing is not an option, and that's why this government is tackling the problem from every angle, boosting supply, investing in infrastructure, supporting affordable housing and reforming the tax system so it works for the next generation, not just the last one. Homeownership should still be part of the Australian dream.

And now I want to turn to another issue that affects every household every day: energy bills. Australians want lower power prices, they want reliability and they want a government prepared to invest in the future rather than argue about the past. That's exactly what Labor is doing, and one of the practical ways Labor is doing this is through the Solar Share Offer, helping households benefit from cheaper, cleaner energy. This is about making sure Australians can benefit from the massive growth in renewable energy even if they don't own rooftop solar themselves. The idea is simple: during the middle of the day, when solar energy generation is high and electricity is abundant, households can access periods of free daytime power, and this means that families can run their dishwashers, their washing machines, dryers, hot water systems, electric charge, electric car chargers and other appliances during those hours where you're getting free electricity and save money on those bills. This is about sharing the benefits of Australia's renewable energy success more fairly, and it's part of Labor's broader plan to deliver cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy. It's important.

The evidence is already coming through. Just yesterday, new figures showed that Australia has hit 50 per cent renewable energy and we're leading the world in battery deployment. This record renewable energy generation is helping drive power prices down. Across New South Wales, my home state, household electricity prices are forecast to fall by another 3.4 per cent with even bigger reductions for small businesses—up to 20.9 per cent reductions for small businesses in rural New South Wales. That matters enormously for families and local businesses doing it tough.

Labor understands that the transition to clean energy is not just an environmental policy. It's an economic policy, a cost-of-living policy and an industry policy. For regions like Newcastle and the Hunter, it's also a jobs policy because our region has always powered Australia. From coal and steel to clean energy and advanced manufacturing, Newcastle has never been afraid of hard work or big transitions. Under Labor, Newcastle and the Hunter will continue to play a central role in Australia's economic future.

The measures I've spoken of today are united by a simple principle. Labor believes government should make life better for ordinary Australians—not harder, not more expensive and not more uncertain. Government should not be dragging us back to the last century. Whether it's strengthening Medicare, making medicines cheaper, expanding mental health care, supporting older Australians or investing in cleaner, cheaper energy—these are reforms designed to improve people's lives. They are reforms grounded in fairness, grounded in opportunity and grounded in the belief that no Australian should be left behind. That's what this government is delivering, and that's why these investments matter so deeply to communities like Newcastle and the Hunter.

Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise not just to speak about the appropriation bills but to give voice to the concerns, the frustrations and the hopes of the communities that are too often left behind—communities in the electorate of Lyne. Let's call this budget what it is: a patchwork of blunders that, when woven together, form a tapestry of neglect for rural and regional Australia. And the consequences are not abstract. They are lived, felt and endured by families, workers and small-business owners right across our electorates and beyond.

Before this budget was handed down, I made a detailed prebudget submission. I spelled out, in no uncertain terms, the urgent needs of the communities and people of the Lyne electorate—for our roads, our telecommunications, our water security, our seniors and our children—and worked closely with communities and organisations across the electorate. What was the Albanese government's response? Well, we did get three things from the submission, and I'm grateful. We've got another round of the Stronger Communities Program, funding for the Growing Regions Program and funding for enabling infrastructure to unlock development-ready land for housing.

Key issues were raised with me in a housing forum I held last year. No-one raised changing the CGT or negative gearing settings. What people were talking about were things like investing in power, water and sewerage, in enabling infrastructure. All in all, just three items from Lyne's wish list were addressed, which I think most here would agree is pretty paltry in the scheme of things. It is pretty unsatisfactory for the hardworking, taxpaying people of Lyne to think that is all they are worth.

Taken as a whole, this budget lets rural and regional people down big time. It's a budget that defunds regional Australia. It's as though Labor has drawn a line around metropolitan Labor seats and said, 'The rest of you: you'll have to make do.'

Take a look at our roads. There's not a single cent for the critical upgrades and interchanges on the Pacific Highway our communities rely on for safety and growth. Telecommunications has been stripped of over $21 million in funding, making it even harder to fix mobile and internet black spots. The national water grid has been slashed by $103 million. That's money that could secure our water future with projects like the Kiwarrak off-river storage.

Let's talk about health. You know I like this topic. The Albanese government has all but abandoned regional healthcare. From a $1.8 billion commitment to urgent care clinics, Taree, despite repeated evidence based requests, gets nothing, zero, zilch. Our aged-care system, already stretched to breaking point, receives a pittance that won't even make a dent in the Support at Home waiting list or fix the workforce crisis. Worse, our older Australians—those who have worked hard all their lives—are hit with a higher tax burden as their reward for decades of contribution, punished for aspiration, for paying off their homes and for doing the right thing.

It doesn't stop with today's seniors. The door is closing on the next generation's hopes for investment and a secure retirement, thanks to the changes to capital gains and negative gearing. I've heard from constituents of all ages who are outraged, anxious and disillusioned. In my opinion, every regional Australian is a loser in this budget. For older Australians, the reduction of the private health insurance rebate has been nothing short of a stab in the back. Constituents in my electorate feel utterly betrayed by the government that has changed the rules mid-game. Joanne, who lives in Bolwarra, cannot fathom why, in a cost-of-living crisis, this government is making it harder for older Australians to access affordable health care. Lorraine said:

This country, but especially the health system, is going backwards very quickly and we need to stop this decline before it gets to the point that to live in this town, or indeed Foster/Tuncurry is a danger to your life. I thought I was doing the right thing by always having private health insurance but now feel totally betrayed and misguided by this government.

For many, private health insurance isn't a luxury. It's the only way they can get the surgery, the specialist treatment and the procedures that restore quality of life. The Howard government understood this, which is why it increased rebates for older Australians. The Albanese government's cuts mean couples over 65 could pay an extra $1,600 a year, a 21 per cent increase, and that's on top of a 4.4 per cent rise in premiums for everyone. This is the largest premium hike in eight years, and it comes as Australians face the highest out-of-pocket costs to see a GP in Medicare's history—over $50 on average. All this is in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis made worse by budget mismanagement. The result is that every Australian forced out of private health puts more strain on our already stretched public hospitals. Manning in Taree, Port Macquarie, Maitland and John Hunter hospitals—these hospitals are the lifelines for our region, and the immense pressure they are already under has just been made much worse thanks to Labor.

Labor says these cuts are about fairness, but where's the fairness in punishing those who paid taxes their whole lives and who took out private cover to ease the burden on public hospitals? Where's the fairness in driving up costs, pushing more people onto waiting lists and shifting the financial burden onto taxpayers and state governments? It is not just; it is unjust and it is deeply wrong.

Let's turn to trusts and tax changes hidden in this budget. The government says it's about fairness again, stopping trusts from distributing income to family members. For many Australians, for many families, for farmers, for small businesses in regional Australia, trusts are not a loophole. They are a legitimate way to protect assets, to plan for the future and to pass on a legacy. Many people in Lyne have spent decades building a small business, running a farm, paying off a home and saving carefully so they can leave something behind for their children and grandchildren. They've worked long hours, taken risks and gone without all in the hope that the next generation might have a better future.

Before the election, Labor promised it wouldn't touch key tax settings like negative gearing and capital gains. Now those promises are gone. There is no fundamental difference between the challenges that existed at the last election just 12 months ago and the challenges that exist today that are barriers to young people getting into housing. So Labor's argument that you had to change your position is a big fraud. You said, 'For the 50th time, we won't make changes.' These were just words of convenience at election time. I'm going to have to say that this broken promise has done immense damage to the trust that Australians have in our democratic institutions and their processes, at a time when they need to be able to trust government more than ever before. I say that most sincerely. Labor, you have done immense damage to the trust that Australians have in our democratic institutions and processes at a time when the Australian people need to be able to trust government more than ever before.

This budget is a warning: when the government run out of money, they come after yours. They're chasing you down the street for the last $2 in your back pocket. Regional Australians deserve better. You cannot keep treating working people, small-business owners and farmers as cash cows for Canberra. I've heard from local business owners, constituents, who have contacted me about the impacts on their business of high taxing governments who break promises. One is in autoelectrics and air conditioning. He is closing his business after 21 years because Labor's taxes have made it too difficult to operate. He's closing shop to take his skills and resources to Canada.

Owen and Lyn in my electorate emailed me to share this:

The Labour Party continues to target and destroy small businesses ... Our son, who now runs our joinery company, after our retirement is disillusioned and considering moving his business and family to a place where they can thrive and are appreciated. Our business has been operating for some 49 years and contributing to our community with quality products and services and this would be a great 1oss. We are so frustrated by the constant attacks on small businesses and young entrepreneurs. The budget was the last straw for many people and the defining factor that has led to this decision. We sit here and ponder how, we the people, can revolt against this evil government and cause an early election to rid ourselves of such a corrupt regime!

This is not just a fiscal issue; it's a question of values. Do we want a country that rewards hard work and aspiration or one that penalises it?

And, while we're talking about hardship, let me remind this House that it's been a year since the devastating floods on the Mid North Coast, especially in the Manning Valley. The scars are still visible. Recovery is far from over. Roads, homes and businesses are still being rebuilt. People are still carrying the emotional and financial toll. We've heard a lot from government about resilience. It's popular among agency officials and bureaucracies, but locals just roll their eyes when the word 'resilience' is used, as they are sick of being told that resilience is the government's objective. In June last year, the PM said:

Whether it's helping families get back into safe housing, or supporting local businesses and farmers to clean up and keep going, we're standing with communities every step of the way.

Well, here's the news: no, you aren't. Where is the funding for house raising and buybacks? Where is the funding for community infrastructure, like Wingham pool? Where is the revitalisation for our Taree and Wingham CBDs, smashed by the floods; for road repairs; and for just simply being there and helping people? This week I heard that, potentially, the recently announced package is not going to be fully fulfilled.

I was with people only this weekend who were in the communities of Croki and Bohnock, people who lost everything. I was with them in the mud. I was with them in their homes when they were trying to find those family heirlooms, those photos that were their connection to the life they once had. Then they hear the words from the Prime Minister but don't see the follow through. Can you imagine what it feels like to be those people? These are the things that we need the government to remember when they make grandiose commitments to the people of Australia—that there are real people that listen and expect delivery when they need it most. Governments make promises when the TV cameras are rolling, but when the spotlight fades the support disappears, and we are left fighting tooth and nail for every scrap of assistance.

Right now, Australians are seeing a clear choice. Labor's vision is to tax more, spend more and hope the numbers add up. They talk of intergenerational fairness, but the reality is uncertainty, higher taxes and less incentive to invest or innovate. Business leaders warn these policies will stifle ambition and investment, especially among the young. Contrast this with the coalition's approach: growth, lower taxes, rewarding work and aspiration. We will tackle bracket creep, index tax brackets to inflation and repeal Labor's changes to negative gearing, capital gains and trusts. We'll link migration to housing supply and infrastructure, and we will invest in regional Australia. Communities like mine are feeling the strain on roads, health, aged care, water, telecommunications and housing. For too long, governments have failed to plan for population growth and failed to deliver the infrastructure and services that make growth sustainable. And abolishing the Mobile Black Spot Program and reducing funding for the Regional Tech Hub is proof positive that Labor couldn't care less about regional needs.

Families in Lyne are at breaking point, with rising energy and fuel bills, soaring insurance, expensive groceries and mounting pressure on household budgets. Small businesses and farms need certainty, not the constant threat of new taxes or spending blowouts. This year's budget debate is about more than numbers. It's about the kind of country we want to be—a country that backs the people who grow our food, build our homes, care for our sick and educate our children; a country that rewards effort, supports resilience and honours the regions as the wealth creation centre of this nation. This year's budget debate showed Australians that there is now a very clear choice about the direction of the economy and about what kind of country we want Australia to become.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In a calm, measured response, I'll just repeat these words: no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no cuts to SBS—and every single one broken. There's the carbon tax. We all remember that great lie, and that can be said a lie, because the then chief of staff to Prime Minister Abbott, Peta Credlin—that great lefty—got up and admitted on Sky TV that their whole campaign was a lie, an absolute lie. But it was put on the Australian people. So you can't take the words of those opposite to be genuine and fair dinkum when they come in here with probably the greatest hypocrisy of events that we've seen in a long, long time. It's just not right.

But I'll tell you what is right. What is right is building a budget and building a nation's future. It's about picking up the pieces after nine long years. We were told we would have a budget surplus in each and every year. We were told we were going to have debt cut, but it went to $1.2 trillion. We've paid down debt, with billions of dollars saved in interest. Billions of dollars saved means that we can put it into the things that matter, such as housing, education, health and investment in roads.

At the last election we had a Liberal candidate get stuck into us because we hadn't finished building a road project that had been on the cards for 10 years. In those 10 years that it hadn't been built, we were actually in there doing it, standing knee-deep in mud. It was great fun. They came out and celebrated, standing there next to the brass plaque that said, 'This footbridge was opened by Fran Bailey and John Howard in 2003.' Imagine coming out to a marginal seat, the seat that you went to the election saying, 'This is our No. 1 target,' and the only thing you could celebrate was something that happened 22 years ago.

In fact, over the nine years of the Liberal-National coalition, not one dollar was spent on road projects. There were lots of press releases. Damian Drum was out there flicking press releases saying, 'We're going to do this;' 'We're going to that.' Apparently, they were going to duplicate 20 kilometres of the Hume Freeway—both sides, under bridges, over roads—at a cost of $50 million. That's a 10th of what they gave the Great Barrier Reef Foundation in a promise made to them that they didn't even know about. That was a government that could not deliver a pizza, let alone a road project, a hospital, bulk-billing—anything. But when our government came to power, we had to turn that around. And we're playing catch-up. Do you remember Victoria? It only received $7 out of every $100 in road infrastructure funding across the nation under the former government. But we're addressing that.

Our budget is about delivering for families, for young people, for working people and for those who rely on our safety net. It's a fair budget. It's a budget that faces the challenges we face today. When you work hard and save, you should be able to buy your own home. But, right now, first home buyers have been priced out of property by investors, where the tax department is on their side. We are on the side of Australians. We want to see people in their own homes. No more will you go to an auction and see investor versus investor because they can use tax breaks to get through. We want to make sure that the families that are working hard, trying to build their foundation and get somewhere to settle down, have the opportunity to buy a home.

That's the distinction between us and those opposite. We talk about housing and homes. We talk about putting people into homes—people fleeing domestic violence, people on low incomes, first responders, healthcare workers. It's about getting them a home to live in, whereas when you listen to the language of those opposite it's about houses being an asset. All they're worried about is a taxation break. You can still do that, and I think the decision that was made on housing and homes has been sensational. If you want to use negative gearing, then go out there and buy a new home. Get a new house built. Put one into the country's stock to help the biggest issue we have. You'll see a lot of deflection from those opposite about what's happening in the housing market. They'll try and blame every migrant, with every excuse under the sun, but you look at any major piece of work that's been done on housing and shortage is the No. 1 issue.

Having a government focused on getting homes built—places for people to settle down—and increasing stock is the way forward, not giving tax breaks to people who have 10, 20, 30 or 40 properties to be able to work off, not leaving the people that go to work every day to carry the burden of the tax system. We had a visit from Joe Hockey this week. Remember Joe Hockey, who stood in this parliament and said, 'We've got lifters and leaners.' The people that are doing the hard work of the lifting are those that come to work and use manual labour to get things done. They're the ones carrying the burden of the system. Those that are able to sit at home and invest in properties, because they've had the opportunity to build wealth—it's about time they chipped in a bit. It's about time the tax system worked for people trying to get ahead.

Right now first home buyers are being priced out of the market—no ifs and buts—but the tax reforms are all about reducing the gap between how Australia taxes income from work and income from wealth or investment. If we think about a worker who's earning $120,000 in wages, they're generally paying the full marginal income tax on every dollar earned, while investors are able to reduce tax through concessions like negative gearing and the 50 per cent capital gains discount. The reforms aim to narrow down that difference, so workers are not, effectively, shouldering the load and subsidising the investment losses of others. Redirecting tax incentives for investors towards newly built homes, as I said, is the way forward, and that's what we're doing. These are investments that add to housing supply, rather than increasing prices on existing homes.

Four years ago, we inherited a broken taxation system, and we've been focused and determined to fix it. The concessions favour those who produce in our economy, and they couldn't come at a better time, with a global oil shock and a housing crisis. We are delivering tax relief. We are building an economy that works for people. An economy begins with homeownership. A dream of homeownership is part of the Australian story. Sadly, as I said, right now it's just too hard for many Australians to get into their own home and get ahead. A decade of coalition government let these conditions take root. In recent weeks, the opposition has made much of the 'aspirational Australians' budget, but it's a very narrow and limited view of the world. Why should aspiration be limited to people who can afford to trade assets? Aspiration should extend to a childcare worker, a nurse or a teacher who's working hard and trying to get ahead. We know this. That's why these landmark reforms to capital gains tax and negative gearing are being introduced. I'm happy to be on the record, even as late as last year, saying that I had discussed with the Treasurer my support for restricting tax breaks for housing investors to brand new properties and for grandfathering the current arrangements for existing landlords. I was clear that I'd certainly support changes to capital gains tax and I would support changes to negative gearing. Now budget night has come and gone and we are getting on with the job, cleaning up the mess that was left to us by those opposite.

From these reforms we'll get 75,000 extra homes on the market. I want to emphasise the scale of that assistance. That's 75,000 families, in their own home, who can feel secure and realise an Australian dream. Labor is leading from the front by putting money back in the pockets of regular working people. A total of 3.5 million Victorians will benefit from our new $250 working Australians tax offset. That's just the latest step in Labor's track record of tax relief. We're not the party of vested interests; we are the party of the fair go. On top of that, the Albanese Labor government will introduce a $1,000 instant tax deduction next financial year, with around 6.2 million workers set to benefit directly from that. Charitable donations and other non-work related reductions will continue to be claimed on top of the instant tax deduction, as will union and other trade or business or professional association membership. It's simple: with Labor, Australian workers can earn more and keep more of what they earn. In total, the average Australian average worker should benefit by about $3,000 in their pockets by 2028. Let's be clear, it's about helping everyday Australians.

We on this side look at local investments in our community. While listening to the tirade about investments in infrastructure and Black Spot programs, I was shocked because we know that, under the previous system, they were set up in such a way that a fair go was not a fair go. We saw with Black Spot programs three major things: rural and regional areas, being prone to major disaster and new transport routes. Somehow the 'One Neurone' member got 28 towers in their electorate of New England, but the seat of McEwen, which had about 83 per cent of it burnt out in the last few decades—200 lives lost during fires—and has the Calder and the Hume freeways, got 1½. You would have to say that was not a program that was treated fairly and equally and based on the criteria.

We have also delivered roads, and delivering roads is something I'm very proud to see us doing. We are delivering Donnybrook Road, which was neglected since 2004, with not a piece of road work being done. We're also delivering $175 million into a new overpass on the Hume Freeway and the first stages of the duplication. We couldn't be prouder of this. With our state government's $7.7 million, the much-needed upgrades will make a real difference to the people who live in those communities, who have to suffer every day with the traffic. Our minister for infrastructure put it best: it's an upgrade people living in Melbourne's outer north have called for and deserve. We're a peri urban electorate. We're situated on the city's biggest growth corridor. We are growing like topsy. It's clear investment in McEwen is investment in our future.

It doesn't end there. In Wallan, we took on the Watson Street interchange, the one that was promised and never delivered. The Northern Highway intersection is now going ahead at stage 2 of those three-stage projects. The Watson Street upgrade completes the diamond interchange for Watson Street and Hume Freeway, with new ramps giving drivers direct access to Wallan north and south on the freeway, ending congestion, improving traffic flow.

We've got the duplication of Yan Yean Road commitment at stage 2 as well. These are the important arterial roads that carry us around. The Hume Highway carries people not only to Melbourne but across Victoria and across regional communities. It's also where we've delivered the Cameron's Lane Interchange, nearly $1 billion in investment to build the Beveridge Intermodal Precinct. That's the Melbourne end of the Inland Rail, the rail that was multibillions of dollars overdue, multiyears behind. We fixed that, got it back on track. We've got shovels in the ground actually delivering it. We're not saying we're going to do it; we're actually getting on with the job and getting it done. You can actually see it in the ground now. When we think about the nine years of the previous government, there was not one drop, not 1c, of infrastructure funding going into our region. So with over a billion dollars in roads, we're getting on with something else that's been neglected for a long, long time—the old Sydney Road promise.

We've got bulk-billing rates going up far in excess of what they were even during the COVID period, when bulk-billing rates went up and people could go and get their vaccination for nothing. But we're also backing small businesses because we know the importance of that. The recent reform direction set by the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable will deliver a significant package of practical reforms that will meaningfully boost productivity growth. The $20,000 instant asset write-off will be permanent from next year. That is so important. It was a great Labor policy that we kept on to make sure that we help supported small businesses, to give them a fair go and the confidence they need to invest. We're sending a message: we will give you a fair go. We're cutting red tape by reducing financial sector compliance costs by $780 million a year by progressing 14 legislative reforms; reforming the research and development tax incentive to unlock $400 million per year in additional R&D by young firms; and expanding tax incentives for venture capital. These changes build on the work done in our previous budgets to help actually make life better for small businesses in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. We've also been working every day since we came to government to help with the cost of living, with, already, three rounds of tax cuts, more bulk-billing, cheaper medicines, free TAFE, cheaper child care, more support for parents—all these things.

In an uncertain world, we're making sure Australia is prepared for whatever comes next. And it's not just members of the government praising the budget. I'm constantly hearing from locals, especially young people, that we are doing the right thing by them. Whether it's in Woodend, Wallan, Doreen or Diamond Creek, McEwen residents are in a better position for growth. In this parliament, we have already weathered global headwinds outside the control of one government. But, with this budget, we can improve the lives of Australians even in the face of international challenges.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I must say to anyone listening at home: you must feel like you're in a parallel universe when you hear contributions from the government saying that everything's rosy, everything's great, and Australians have never had it better. In the real world, when you get out there and you talk to Australians, they're angry, they're frustrated and they've been left behind by a government which has made them worse off in just four years. The message I get, everywhere I go, is that Australians want their country back.

This week's Mood of the Nation poll found that 66 per cent of Australians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction—that 66 per cent of Australians believe our nation is not on the right track. And who could blame them? They have experienced a declining standard of living. They have seen, over the last four years, 15 interest rate rises. The average Australian mortgage holder now is paying $25,000 per year more in interest than they were before the Albanese government came to power.

And, up against those headwinds, families would have turned on the TV on budget night and found out that they had been misled repeatedly before the 2020 election. The voters won't forget, because the Prime Minister himself, in a very snippy little interview where his glass jaw broke in front of the assembled press gallery, said he'd 'told you 50 times'—50 times—that he was ruling out changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing. After the federal election, in May last year, the Prime Minister continued, when he said: 'We have a mandate for what we took to the Australian people. That is our mandate.' They're his own words: 'We have a mandate for what we took to the Australian people. That is our mandate.'

The Prime Minister has no mandate for the changes announced in the federal budget which hit small-business owners and which hit our farming communities. And he knows it. The Prime Minister knows that he's broken his word. He likes to say, 'Now I've changed my position,' or some other little weasel words, to try and get around it. He's fundamentally broken a promise to the Australian people, and they won't forget it.

Why can't this Prime Minister just be honest? Just be honest with the Australian people and say: 'I did break my promise. But these are my new policies, and I'm going to take them to the next election and give you a chance to vote on them.' That's kind of how a democracy is meant to work: you have a policy position; you take it to the voters; the voters decide; and you get a winner. What you don't do—unless you're a little bit gutless—is to mislead voters and tell them 50 times you're not going to do something, and then, at the first available opportunity, break your word and give no-one a chance to vote on it.

This is going to hang around those opposite like a dead albatross, all the way to the next election. The member for Chifley shakes his head. And they've got every right to be confident, because they've got 94 members of the House of Representatives. They think they're on a winner. I can tell you: when you get out on the streets and you listen to people, they know they have been misled, deceived, by a prime minister who cannot be trusted with anything he says, going forward, because he told us 50 times he wasn't going to change capital gains tax or negative gearing, and he's done exactly the opposite without having the fundamental decency to take it to the Australian people. In his own words—'We have a mandate for what we took the Australian people. That is our mandate'—he has no mandate for what he's done in the budget.

The Prime Minister also told Australians—this is probably the funniest thing I've heard out of him in recent times: 'My word is my bond. I believe that, when you go to an election and you make commitments, you should stick to them.' It's good advice for any leader. He also said, 'I will lead a government that keeps its promises.' So why would any Australian believe him in the next election when he rules out other tax changes? They know he'll just conveniently change his mind after election and do whatever he wanted in the first place. This is Bill Shorten's 2019 election campaign being delivered by the current Prime Minister, but at least Bill Shorten had the guts, the intestinal fortitude, to take it to the voters. We even had the member for McMahon saying, if you don't like our policies, don't vote for them. Australians don't need to be told twice; they didn't vote for them. That is why this is such a fundamental deceit of the Australian people—because they didn't actually seek a mandate for this. The Labor Party knew that, if they'd sought a mandate, what happened in 2019 would happen again, because, if people didn't like their policies, they wouldn't vote for them. They always planned to do this. That is the disgrace that is at the very fundamental core of the budget that was delivered by the Treasurer only a couple of weeks ago.

Instead of a plan for the future of regional Australia, in the budget we saw more broken promises, higher taxes, more debt, lower living standards and fewer homes for Australians. The budget papers themselves say that, under the changes being delivered by this government, 35,000 fewer homes will be built. That's in their own budget papers.

We're facing a decade of deficits worth $150 billion, but the greatest deficit isn't $150 billion; it's the deficit of trust that now exists between this Prime Minister and the Australian people. A hundred and fifty billion dollars is a lot of money, but the deficit of trust that exists now between this Prime Minister and the voters of this country has been widened in a manner which is unprecedented in my time in this parliament, and that's 18 years. To see a prime minister so deliberately mislead the Australian voters and then pretend nothing happened is quite extraordinary.

The deceit which goes to the very heart of this budget is these mealy-mouthed claims from those opposite that it's about intergenerational equity, but it's actually about intergenerational fraud, and they know it. The negative gearing treatment in the budget and the way it's been grandfathered to protect people like me and people like the Prime Minister but then pull up the ladder of opportunity for young people in this country is quite extraordinary—again, when you acknowledge that no-one took it to the election in the first place. The Prime Minister, like me, has worked for a long time, purchased a family home and then been in a position to invest in an investment property, have it negatively geared and have the benefit of that tax treatment. But what happens now is that people who hadn't made those investments prior to budget night no longer have that opportunity in the same manner which the Prime Minister and I have enjoyed throughout our working careers.

Government Member:

A government member interjecting

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member opposite says, 'Wrong.' When he stands up, he can explain to explain to the Australian people who want to buy an existing home whether they can negatively gear like the Prime Minister. Oh, no, they can't. Not an existing home—exactly. You changed the rules. Come in spinner! You changed the rules. So young people don't have the same rules that I had access to and the Prime Minister had access to, and you're too gutless to take it to an election. You are so gutless. You're so brave now. Why wouldn't you take it to the Australian people at the election?

A government member interjecting

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I'll remind members to address their comments through the chair.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And I remind those opposite that interjections are disorderly!

Instead of helping young Australians into their own homes, the Treasury itself has acknowledged that the tax change will result in 35,000 fewer homes being built and that rents are expected to increase.

We've seen in regional Australia a government which constantly punishes the people who live outside our capital cities, because by and large they don't vote for the Labor Party. We've seen it with water buybacks in the Murray-Darling basin, which stripped water out of productive use in the communities which feed and clothe our nation. We saw it with the cut to the Inland Rail project. It's quite extraordinary to cut the Inland Rail project and, in the very next breath, throw a few billion dollars at the suburban rail project in the Melbourne metropolitan area. This is part of Victoria's Big Build, which has been exposed as a home for rorts and corruption involving the CFMEU and bikie thugs, to the turn of $15 billion per year. The Big Build program has been independently assessed as having people working as traffic coordinators and then performing as strippers for the CFMEU members in the workers hut at night. What steps has the government taken to ensure that no federal taxpayer dollars are going to assist the rorts and corruptions on that program? I can tell you, in Victoria today, when they see the reports of $15 billion being wasted on CFMEU rorts and bikie thugs, they know that's hospitals and roads that weren't built and roads that weren't fixed. That is the lost opportunity when $15 billion of taxpayers' money is wasted in this manner. And now we find out this government is throwing more money at the suburban rail project, a project that has not even been assessed by Infrastructure Australia. Sadly, this budget is one which divides Australians more than ever before.

I want to refer to the capital gains tax changes and how they will impact on many of our farming families. I can promise you that, out of 150 members in the House, probably about 145 of them have no idea what it means. From my own perspective, I've been getting some advice today and over the last couple of weeks, trying to understand how this will play out. This is so complex and so damaging to Australian farming families. The government has no idea what it's just done. As the Victorian Farmers Federation has pointed out, more than half of the farming families in Australia will miss out on any concessions under these changes, and they will face massively higher tax bills at the time they try to transfer their properties within their families. Succession planning is hard enough as it is, when you have an asset-rich and, in many cases, cash-poor business. I don't think the government understands what it's done here. We want to see more families taking up life on the land, and these changes will lead to more corporate farms.

Today I visited a farm at Bungendore with the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Nationals. Paul, who's about 70 years old, and his daughter Hannah run a mixed-farming enterprise and a local butcher shop. They're worried about the impact of the capital gains tax changes on their family farm, which has been in the family now for three generations. The minister was asked about this in question time today, and she clearly doesn't understand her own government's changes, which do, once again, represent a broken promise to all Australians.

As I said, the Victorian Farmers Federation has publicly warned the government that more than 50 per cent of farmers will not receive a capital gains tax concession, because the concession thresholds have not been adjusted. They will pay massively higher tax bills when transferring their farm ownership to their children. What this will mean is that some farming families will have to sell off parts of the property, just to pay the tax bill, or, perhaps even worse, they won't make any succession plan at all. They'll wait till the farmer dies and then won't transfer the property in an orderly way. They'll seek to avoid the changes altogether. The VFF acting president, Peter Star, said the current thresholds no longer reflect the reality of modern farming businesses. He said:

Family farms have been locked out of concessions that were specifically designed to help them transition between generations.

Farmland values have increased dramatically over the past 20 years, but the thresholds governing access to CGT concessions have stayed frozen in time. We're working off a framework that is no longer relevant.

The government has been told that by the Victorian Farmers Federation, but it hasn't acted. The minister today, in her answer, demonstrated she has no idea what this is going to do to more than 50 per cent of farming families when they try to undertake succession planning in their businesses.

Budgets are always about choices. In this budget, the people in my community and throughout regional Australia know the Albanese government didn't choose them and didn't choose our farmers. There's a $52 million cut in this budget to the Future Drought Fund. Maybe the government believes we'll never have another drought—I don't know. At a time when the global conflict is driving up fertiliser prices, increasing diesel costs and putting pressure on food production around the world, the government has failed to provide a single new dollar to implement the unfinished National Food Security Strategy—not a dollar to implement it; it's quite extraordinary. They're clawing back funding from the Pest and Disease Preparedness and Response Program as part of more than $104 million in agricultural grant reductions. At the same time, the government has allowed the Supporting Communities Manage Pest Animals and Weeds Program to lapse, without any replacement.

Budgets are about choices, and the government didn't choose regional Australia. It certainly didn't choose our farming communities. Farmers are already battling—exploding populations of deer, wild dogs, feral pigs, invasive weeds and growing biosecurity threats—but Labor's response in this budget is to cut the preparedness funding and walk away from coordinated pest management. I'm the first one to acknowledge that state governments have a major role to play when it comes to natural resource management and feral animal control, but federal government has a critical role to play in controlling invasive species as well. Everyone accepts that invasive species are responsible for more extinctions in Australia today than climate change or any other issue. That's accepted by everyone who works in natural resource management, and yet here we have a government that is cutting funding for practical environmental management and invasive species control.

I'm going to finish where I started. There is a growing mood for change in our nation. We see it in the opinion polls, and everyone acknowledges these are very volatile times in the Australian electorate. The mood that I am sensing in my community is Australians feel like it's business as usual in parliament—in this place, under this Prime Minister—and that 'business as usual' is just more broken promises. They want their country back. After four years of the Albanese government, Australians are worse off—and they know that our nation is heading in the wrong direction.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I had a speech I wanted to roll through, but I've instead decided I'm going to respond with gusto to the previous speaker, the member for Gippsland. I had to sit through his canard of falsehoods and I figure it's important to respond to some of the stuff that he said.

It's a very seductive suggestion that has been put forward by him, which is: don't make changes on negative gearing and capital gains tax; go to an election and put those changes; don't listen to the fact that people want to have a roof over their heads. I believe, firmly, housing is a human right. People do a lot better when they are comfortable, assured and confident they have a roof over their heads and they don't have to worry about being homeless. And so we made changes that are particularly for first home buyers so as to give them a chance to buy an existing home.

If you listen to the member for Gippsland, if you listen to the coalition, they say it's not important enough that we make those changes now, and that what we should do is put it to an election. And here is the seductive element to it: if we were, in some bizarre world, inclined to accept what he has just put to this chamber, it would mean we would basically have a scare campaign from now until the election of overblown claims that don't actually stack up to reality. From their perspective it would mean this change would never happen if we went to that election with them planning all those falsehoods.

They will react, no doubt, to me putting that claim forward, but in the space of just a couple of weeks, boy, have we seen the outrage machine, generated by those opposite, crank up. Some of the claims that are being put forward—even by some in social media, who even admitted that their claims were misleading and weren't tethered to truth—have had tax accountants say they were misleading and not tied to truth. That is what the member for Gippsland wants. That is what the coalition want. They want two years of misleading claims.

We don't want that. We want people to be able to get a roof over their heads. We want to make these changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax so that when a first home buyer, like what I have in my neck of the woods, turns up to an auction they can buy a home. Previously, they would turn up to an auction and face a wall of investors who drive up auction prices for homes in my part of Western Sydney and shut the door on first home buyers who want to buy existing homes. We are saying: 'No, we want better for first home buyers. We want them to get a foot into the door.'

I will be completely honest to the chamber. Yes, I've absolutely had people contact my office opposed to the budget and opposed to the negative gearing and CGT changes. Why? Because of the whole lot of hot air and misinformation that has been put out by, frankly, the coalition or enabled by elements of the Murdoch press that have decided that they will paint, for example, our Treasurer as a massive communist and mislead people on the stuff that is being done. You have to explain that negative gearing can still happen; it's just going to happen differently. By that I mean, if you want to build a nest egg for yourself and you want to negatively gear, what you can do is buy a new home. You can invest in it and build wealth for yourself but also build a new home for the country and, importantly, add to the housing stock. That's the big challenge in this nation. I don't need to tell you this, Deputy Speaker, because you are fully aware of this. We need to build more homes quickly, and we want to be able to do that on top of everything else that we're doing. I've argued for this change. I argued well before the budget that we needed to do this. It is important for us to go through this.

If I may find some sort of agreement with the member for Gippsland, the previous coalition speaker, I will say this: budgets are a reflection of values and we absolutely in this budget demonstrate values—values of fairness for first home buyers who want to get a foot in the door and values of better health care for people by investing in Medicare. I think Medicare is a great reflection of Australian values—that we all chip in to make sure that, when people need help with their health, they are not dependent on their wallet. We all chip in to provide a quality universal healthcare system. If you compare us to the United States, one of the biggest causes of bankruptcy there is medical costs. We don't have that here. We're providing now, under this budget, cheaper medicines. We've made permanent Medicare urgent care clinics, like the one we opened up in Rooty Hill in 2023 that has seen nearly 23,000 people out of hours and given them urgent health care, and all people needed to bring to get that help was their Medicare card. It's a terrific development.

We have also made sure we're providing cost-of-living relief. Again, our values are to help working Australians. We've provided five tax cuts. There's an instant tax deduction that will be provided for working Australians, a tax offset. The tax cuts that we're putting forward will deliver just over $2,800 of tax relief for people. This is hugely important, particularly in my part of Western Sydney.

I'm really happy that we've got a budget that delivers in terms of housing. We'll put in more money to help homes be built on top of everything else that we're doing to try to increase housing stock. What previous coalition speakers have failed to talk about and never really reflected on in their tirades against the changes that we've made to make it easier for first home owners or first homebuyers to get into the market is their own record on building homes. They've opposed everything that we have done and put forward in this massive ambition to build 1.2 million homes by 2030. It is a big target and a hard one to reach but one that is absolutely worth pushing for because, as I said, housing is a human right. We should be able to give people the confidence and assurance of a roof over their head, and we should be pushing and working as hard for that as we can. Our side of politics has those plans. The other side of politics have opposed them and have hidden the fact that, during their time in government—all that time that they were in government from 2013 to 2022—they built the grand total of 380-plus homes in this country. That's not good enough. Then they refused to back in what we're doing.

I think this has been a really important budget, particularly for my part of north-western Sydney. I have argued rather robustly about the need for us to get more money into New South Wales so we can see infrastructure projects such as, for example, the extension of the Sydney Metro from Tallawong to St Mary's. I think that is an important project. There are people spread across five electorates, both Labor and Liberal electorates, that will benefit from that major infrastructure project that needs to happen. I do think that we need to see that. I would also love to see some more infrastructure and, for the long-term good of this country, for the long-term benefit of this nation, for us to find a better way for us to get a stronger return from our natural resources. I'm a firm believer that we should be taxing gas exports and using that money to build a stronger economy into the long term to build resilience and sovereign capability and get us standing on our own two feet. We have been ripped off for too long in terms of our natural resources, and I genuinely, with my full heart, believe that we should absolutely get a better deal on our natural resources. It should make us into an energy superpower and confer on us huge economic and commercial strength. That's going to be a debate that will be ongoing, but I absolutely want to assure people that I stand for that, and I do think it's a debate that will continue.

Earlier, I reflected on some of the debate that we have seen. We have seen some truly off-the-charts behaviour by the coalition—a bit of 'MAGA minor' behaviour too, I might add. We saw one coalition speaker in this chamber call for a revolt, an uprising against the government, and we've seen some other really peculiar rhetoric that's been used, even by coalition frontbenchers who should know better. I sat in that chamber and listened to the Leader of the Opposition effectively write a budget-in-reply off the back of a dog whistle, try and target permanent residents and suggest that they had done something wrong by answering the call to come to this country on skilled visas to fill jobs we couldn't find people for. They're apparently now a bad thing under the coalition.

The coalition is also talking about ramping up resources to drive these permanent residents out of the country. I think that smacks of the Trump approach—what we've seen on American streets with ICE, the driving out of people based on who they are as permanent residents, believing that they're doing the wrong thing and kicking them out of the country. This type of divisive behaviour didn't work well for the former leader of the opposition, and, in a moment of startling logic, it has been decided that the new opposition leader would re-embrace that and use some of that rhetoric in what they're saying.

We've also seen people like Senator Bragg. Senator Bragg has described our budget as a communist tax plan by a communist government. Imagine for a moment if I had decided, based on what I had just described to the chamber about some of the deportation mentality that the coalition are trying to unleash on us, to describe them as fascists. If I had used that type of phrasing, I'd be condemned, no doubt. But they feel free to use that. But not only that—Senator Bragg is a person, by the way, who calls us a communist while also writing a book that wanted to nationalise superannuation and default retirement savings and put them into a government-run investment fund. He calls us communist, but he wants to do that. He's like the Kim Philby double agent of political ideology. On the one hand, he's a mass capitalist; on the next, he's a raving communist in terms of nationalising savings funds.

But on Instagram, back on 17 May, Senator Bragg said, 'Just remember—taxation is legalised theft.' This is a frontbencher of the coalition saying that taxation is legalised theft. He draws his salary from Commonwealth revenue that has been generated by that legalised theft. I don't know if he's going to donate his salary back because he believes that in some way, shape or form these are the proceeds of crime. If he would like to do that, I'd more than welcome him to do that. But this is the kind of out-there mentality that has been used by people like Senator Bragg to try and undermine this budget. He has drawn the support of the same person who ran this campaign that suggested that the government was now going to become an owner in startups, on his post where he said that taxation was legalised theft. This is a coalition frontbencher, mind you, who wants to form a government—unless they are saying that they will no longer tax people at all, which I don't suspect is the case. But this coalition frontbencher got support from someone else who has run a social media campaign that has been shown to be grossly misleading, that they even admitted wasn't the truth and that tax accountants said didn't stack up, and they got the great approval of that person for their statements. This discourse is nonsensical.

If you want to talk about undermining democracy, you can either see what the coalition—the MAGA minor—are saying in terms of calling for revolts, using lines like 'taxation is legalised theft' and describing what's being done as communist. That's what coalition frontbenchers are doing. If this is the standard by which the coalition's opposition leader believes is acceptable, then that is showing us what is undermining democracy in this country. I believe that, regardless of the differences we have, particularly between major parties, we would conduct ourselves responsibly.

We're not expected to agree on everything, but we do have to agree on facts—not the notion of alternative facts, as has been described by some in other arenas in different parts of the world, but that facts matter, that the way you put things forward matter and that, importantly, in a pitch for their own survival, the coalition will not become MAGA minor. They will not try to out One Nation, One Nation, and that they will do the right thing. They may even—if I may end with the words of the late senator Ron Boswell—recognise that, if they preference and support a party like One Nation, they are legitimising them and delegitimising themselves. The coalition deserves to be better, or should be better, than what they are doing, but instead they're into theatrics and overdramatisation.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the bills that give effect to the government's fifth budget. These bills facilitate appropriation for government expenditure. They do not, of themselves, implement the policy and legislative changes announced in the budget, and that's important to remember. However, in bringing the budget into effect, these bills reflect the priorities of the government and how it will fund the delivery of essential services and investments against revenue.

Every year, I work with local governments, health services, tourism bodies and others to develop a budget submission for Indi, which I take directly to the Treasurer. I want to acknowledge the many individuals and organisations across Indi who contributed to this budget's submission. Across regional Australia, including in my electorate of Indi, people are experiencing growing challenges, from access to health care, housing and child care to infrastructure and disaster recovery following devastating bushfires and floods. At the same time, global instability is causing tidal waves domestically for supply chains and uncertainty for key industries like agriculture, manufacturing and construction. Together, these pressures are being felt acutely in the hip pockets of everyday Australians. That's why the key message from the people of Indi was that, in these uncertain times, the budget needs to respond with targeted investment and meaningful reform.

I want to touch on the regional budget statement, because, once again, sadly, I was underwhelmed by it. I was less tactful on budget night when I said it could have been a post-it note. But the truth is that it contains an awful lot of repackaged information and very little new spending or dedicated support for regional Australia. This does very little to address the deep satisfaction felt towards governments by the third of the population living in regional Australia—the third of the population who are so often the last to get and the first to lose.

In this budget, the government has taken steps towards addressing intergenerational inequality and housing accessibility. I welcome the government committing to action, and I acknowledge the ambition it reflects. At the same time, though, there's no doubt that further work is needed. The tax changes announced in the budget will go beyond the expectations the government set in the lead-up to the budget and beyond the original framing of these measures as part of a housing response.

Tax reform, of course, requires careful design and very detailed consultation. I urge the government not to rush these changes but to undertake a genuine and comprehensive process through parliament and with stakeholders so that the legislation works as well as possible and avoids unintended consequences. This will help Australians understand these changes, whether and how they will be affected, and how the government sees these reforms delivering a fairer and more effective tax system in the future. If ever there's a potential remedy or some way of addressing misinformation, then surely bringing people along through consultation and genuine engagement is part of that remedy. It's important to consider the full impact of these changes. It's particularly important to understand what the full impact is for small businesses and primary producers. I'm reaching out to my electorate, and I'll be listening carefully to the feedback I receive.

On aged care, I was pleased to see the government reverse its stance on personal care services. When the government introduced its aged-care reforms in 2024, I raised serious concerns about the co-payment. Basic care, like help with showering, eating and getting dressed, is not a luxury. It is, essentially, clinical care that underpins dignity, health and quality of life. This is the right outcome. It shows yet again that, when communities speak up and their voices are championed by the crossbench, we can find meaningful change. I congratulate the government on changing their mind on that particular element of the aged-care reform.

This budget provides $1.7 billion over five years and $110.9 million ongoing to deliver a really important plank of what we seek from government in looking after the most vulnerable in our community, and that's the 'securing the NDIS for future generations' package. It's important to note that this is not new funding. It's not. This is a reallocation of unspent funds. Following the budget, the government introduced legislation to implement this package. I've spoken in detail on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. I've spoken in detail about the serious concerns that I have—in particular, the ones that have really been brought to my attention by my constituents.

I've consistently pushed this government to invest further in the critical enabling infrastructure that unlocks housing. I welcomed the Prime Minister's announcement of the Housing Support Program in 2023, one week after I met with him to make my case for this funding. In this budget, a further $2 billion is allocated through a new local infrastructure fund. That's designed to help councils and utility providers roll out the paths, the poles and the pavements that are holding back new housing and, most particularly, holding back new housing in regional electorates such as mine. I have argued long and hard for a fair share of housing investment for regional Australia. At the last election my costed policy reflected the need for, in fact, $2 billion in enabling infrastructure investment for the regions alone. There is a gaping hole out there. While there's plenty more to do, it's good to see that the government have now committed one quarter of the local infrastructure fund to the regions. It remains incumbent on the government to ensure this funding is fairly distributed to regional communities.

I welcome further funding allocated to the Growing Regions Program. However, the decision to bundle this funding announcement with a suburban program, without certainty on regional allocations, raises a really key concern that a program that's been relied upon by local communities as a merit based, competitive funding stream will be lost to metropolitan priorities. I'm really concerned about this one.

One positive for farmers in Indi is the $7.5 billion Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility. I hear directly from primary producers that rising costs and uncertainty about supply of both fuel and fertiliser are making it difficult to sustain their operations. With the sowing season for broadacre crops well underway, access to fertiliser is critical to the success of this year's harvest. I welcome the government's recognition of this vital input and its inclusion in this facility.

While I acknowledge the government for some of these reforms, they can and they should do more to address the deep-rooted inequities facing regional and rural Australia. This is not just a question of fairness. It's about setting our nation on a path to greater productivity and long-term prosperity. Regional Australia consistently demonstrates strong productivity outcomes with a track record of outperforming our share of the population. The deputy speaker knows this. To realise our full potential, we need strong health services, we need sound infrastructure, and we need policy choices that back in the ambition of regional communities and invest in our future.

Health care remains the No. 1 concern right across the length and breadth of the electorate of Indi, and, indeed, I know it is a key concern right across rural and regional Australia. While this budget touted an extra $25 billion for hospitals, let's be clear eyed about this. This is predominantly made up of the increased base funding agreed with states and territories last year. This is not new funding over and above what the Commonwealth has already agreed to pay. Importantly, it does not address the pressing need for investment in infrastructure for rural and regional hospitals. Last year, I moved a motion calling on the government to deliver a $2 billion building rural and regional hospitals fund, a fund that would provide an open, transparent and needs based program for health services—like Albury Wodonga Health, Alpine Health, Corryong Health, Mansfield health—to apply for infrastructure funding that they absolutely desperately need. It's not too late to address the fundamental issues driving disquiet in rural and regional Australia and nor too late for action on the very real frustration that's felt by underinvestment in the most fundamental of things—health care infrastructure. If the government would do this, it would show communities that they are actually listening.

There's a compelling case for the government to expand the Commonwealth paid prac program to include all allied health and medical students. These students are required to complete hundreds, often thousands, of hours of unpaid placement. It is critical and important unpaid training, and it puts many students in the most precarious of financial situations. As a result, students are skipping meals, delaying their degrees and, in some cases, considering dropping out altogether because they simply can't make ends meet. Expanding prac payments is a targeted non-inflationary reform that invests in the future productivity of our country, and the success of schemes like Thriving Kids will rely on a strong allied health workforce, and that workforce depends on students being supported through their training, not pushed into placement poverty.

On the essential role of telecommunications and the absolutely critically essential role they play in regional Australia, despite this, this budget not only fails to announce any new funding for regional telecommunications, but, in fact, it has reprioritised millions in funding previously allocated to the Regional Connectivity Plan. In this budget, regional communications have actually gone backwards, and this absence of action on regional telecommunications is why I introduced a private member's bill earlier this week to strengthen our communications in natural disasters. This one just beggars belief to me. It absolutely beggars belief that the government have not put the investment towards this on the back of the summer bushfires that we've just had and on the back of everything that we have learnt, through Black Summer, through cyclones and through devastating floods. I'm never going to let up on this. The government has to invest in regional telecommunications in a way that is meaningful and in a way that will actually save lives.

Local governments face serious and systemic financial sustainability issues, yet this budget offers no long-term certainty nor any confidence for the hundreds of rural shires and city councils. The bringing forward of Financial Assistance Grant payments is a welcome short-term measure, but it's an accounting fix, and it shouldn't be necessary. What is necessary is meaningful action between the Commonwealth and the states to sustain regional councils to put them on a more stable footing for the long term, because, without financially sustainable councils, we can't hope to build the strong regions for our future nor address the core needs of these communities.

One of these core needs, I have to say, is the upkeep of our roads. I know the government loves to spruik increased funding for the Roads to Recovery Program, but the problem is the government is giving in one hand and taking away in the other. The planned growth in Roads to Recovery funding in the next financial year is significantly outweighed by the winding down of the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, representing a more than $400 million shortfall between this financial year and the next. The reality is that funding for roads infrastructure is largely stagnant at an aggregate level under this government. However, you don't need to comb the budget papers to know this; you just need to take a ride down a regional road.

Another glaring hole in this budget—the biggest pothole you might ever see—is the lack of further funding for early education and care wages. The government has been touting its 15 per cent wage rise for early educators, but it's now leaving the sector in the lurch, with no clarity on how future wage rises determined by the Fair Work Commission will be funded. For smaller rural providers of child care in my electorate, it's keeping them awake at night. Many are not-for-profit operators already under strain, so the falling away of the government's support could not come at a more challenging time, and it truly puts centres across Australia at risk of closure. It's a nightmare for parents and carers struggling to balance parenthood and work and for the centres in thin markets.

As I finish, in the agriculture portfolio, I want to call out that savings are being scrapped from a number of programs that are critical to my electorate, including the wine tourism cellar door program and the pest and disease preparedness and response program. These are critical. The wine tourism cellar door program has benefited 15 wineries across Indi. We in Indi know that outbreaks of things like avian influenza are just devastating. It may seem easy for the government to cut small ag programs like this, but—mark my words—they have a huge impact on local communities.

The government might ask how I would fund the policies that I put forward. Let me just add my voice to the millions of Australians who say that one clear opportunity is to tax our gas exports and use that revenue to invest in regional Australia. (Time expired)

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This budget is a responsible and forward-looking plan that recognises the pressures people are under right now while also making our economy fairer into the future. Canberrans are feeling the pressure right now, and this budget meets those pressures head on. It delivers targeted cost-of-living relief, strengthens essential services like health and housing that people rely on, supports Australia's transition to clean energy and reinforces a more resilient economy. Importantly, it reflects Labor values of fairness, opportunity and ensuring that no-one is left behind. For the ACT, it continues a strong record of investment in our services, infrastructure and national institutions. It ensures that Canberra remains a great place to live, work and raise a family.

We are delivering further tax cuts from 1 July this year for every Australian taxpayer, helping ease the pressure of the cost of living. More tax relief is already flowing. This means lower tax bills for working Australians, with permanent relief that puts more money back into people's pockets year after year. For many, that is hundreds of dollars returned, making a real difference to household budgets.

We are also making it easier to claim deductions, introducing a simple $1,000 instant tax deduction with no receipts required, cutting red tape and ensuring more people can access what they're entitled to. Taken together, these changes mean meaningful relief for workers and families, with an average benefit reaching about $3,000. That is before you factor in our fuel tax cuts, which are helping Australians save every time they fill up.

For small businesses, we are cutting red tape and boosting cash flow by permanently extending the $20,000 instant asset write-off. This gives many thousands of businesses, including around 60,000 businesses here in the ACT, the confidence to invest, to grow and to create jobs in our community.

For too long, young people and families have been priced out of the housing market, forced to compete with investors benefiting from tax concessions such as negative gearing and the CGT discount. It is an issue that comes up frequently for me when I'm talking with my constituents here in Canberra. That is why we are committed to delivering a fairer system, one that gives first home buyers a genuine opportunity to get into that market. We also know that improving affordability means increasing supply. We need to build more homes and we need to build them faster. Negative gearing will be limited to only new builds from July next year, and we are delivering 1,000 homes set aside specifically for first home buyers, creating more opportunities for people to secure a place of their own. We are delivering practical support right now. Our five per cent deposit scheme for first home buyers has helped more Australians take that step sooner. Since we came to government, around 1,600 people in my electorate alone have bought their first home through this scheme, creating real outcomes for first home buyers and local families.

Shortly after the budget, I joined the Prime Minister, Treasurer and housing minister to meet with two of my constituents, Mika and Matt, and their dog, Pikelet, in the Canberra suburb of Kingston thanks to Labor's five per cent deposit scheme. Mika told us that it would have taken many more years of renting and saving before they would have been able to afford their own home had they had to have a 20 per cent deposit.

And Labor is not stopping there. We are making sure new homes can actually be built. Through the ACT share of the local infrastructure fund we are investing $50 million in the essential infrastructure that unlocks development, including roads, power and drainage, the building blocks of new communities. We also recognise that not everyone is in a position to buy yet, and that's why we have increased Commonwealth rent assistance by more than 50 per cent since 2022—to help ease pressure for those doing it tough in the rental market. Through the Housing Australia Future Fund we are investing in long-term solutions supporting more social and affordable homes and ensuring that those most in need can access stable and affordable housing. This includes women and children at risk to ensure that they have access to safe and secure accommodation. We saw a $60 million investment into housing for those struggling with youth homelessness. This is about fairness. It is about opportunity and it is about building a future where every Australian has the chance to get ahead.

Since coming to government, we've committed more than $4 billion to the ACT, ensuring our city receives the investment it deserves. This budget continues that strong trajectory with practical measures that support households, strengthen services and invest in the future. Canberra's national institutions will receive over $20 million in additional funding to continue their essential work preserving and sharing Australia's History. This includes nearly $10 million for the National Film and Sound Archive and $3 million in the Museum of Australian Democracy as it prepares for its centenary. This is such a loved institution in our community. In science and innovation, the CSIRO will receive almost $390 million, building on last year's $278 million investment. This funding supports world-leading research and reinforces Canberra's role as a hub for scientific excellence. We are also contributing $30 million to deliver a new RSPCA animal welfare campus in Pialligo, supporting better care for animals and strengthening services for the region. We are working with the ACT and New South Wales governments to improve rail connections between Canberra and Sydney, helping deliver more reliable and efficient travel. This is something that has been a long time coming and many people have advocated for, including people who were part of the inquiry I chaired last term into fostering the significance of our nation's capital. It was great to see another recommendation of that report delivered on in the investment into the rail between here and Sydney. This budget has a really strong investment for Canberra. It strengthens the services people rely on and helps build a more resilient and inclusive economy for the future.

Every budget since the Albanese Labor government came to office has included a Women's Budget Statement, providing a clear view of how our investments support women, strengthen women's economic security and advance gender equality. This continues to be a proud Labor legacy. Gender-responsive budgeting and women's budget statements were first introduced by the Hawke government in the 1980s and were restored by the Albanese government in 2022. I know that in opposition we continued to put those out as well in between those periods. This budget delivers for Australian women. We're continuing to invest in women's safety and we're making the child support system fairer and safer so more families get the child support they are owed. We're investing almost $183 million to make the child support system safer and fairer. Currently, there are more than one million children in the child support system and women make up 83 per cent of recipient parents. Currently, almost $2 billion is owed in unpaid child support debt in Australia—even more when private arrangements are included. That's $2 billion that children are missing out on. The average debt is nearly $8,700. We know that, for many families, this amount could enable a parent to pay for braces for their child, fund club or representative sport, go on school excursions or learn a musical instrument. Our reforms will crack down on financial abuse and strengthen the child support system against weaponisation, ensuring more children and families get the child support they are owed. These are the most significant changes to the child support system in nearly 20 years. These important reforms will both help keep children out of poverty and ensure government systems are not weaponised when relationships break down. These important reforms will both help keep children out of poverty and ensure government systems are not weaponised when relationships break down.

Our majority women government will continue to deliver better outcomes for women and girls. Since 2022, we've made significant progress towards gender equality. Women's average weekly earnings have grown by almost $300 per week. More than one million families have benefited from cheaper child care. Australia has recorded its highest ever international ranking for gender equality in 13th this year, up from 43rd when we came to government. Women have saved more than $47 million across almost 139 million prescriptions, including through expanded access to contraceptives and menopause therapies.

In the health portfolio, this budget delivers real, practical improvements to health care for Canberrans, strengthening Medicare and making it easier for people to get the care they need when they need it. We are making free urgent care clinics a permanent part of our health system, and that includes investment in a new urgent care clinic to be opened in Woden and investing in the five existing nurse led walk-in centres that people know and love here in the ACT. These clinics are already easing pressure on our hospitals and helping families access care quickly without the worry of the bill.

We are also expanding access to primary care, with three new fully bulk-billed GP clinics and stronger incentives to support existing practices right here in Canberra. This means that Canberrans will be able to see a doctor without reaching for their wallet, and this is in direct response to the fact that bulk-billing in Canberra has been historically low, among some of the lowest rates in the country, and it's something that my constituents raise with me. I'm really proud that our government has responded in this way to deliver that really practical support to get these new clinics up and running.

This budget continues our strong support for public hospitals, with an additional $4.1 billion over five years to ensure the ACT has the resources it needs to deliver high-quality care. We are also building on our work to make medicines cheaper. Millions of scripts have already been delivered at a lower cost, putting money back into the pockets of families, ensuring they do not have to choose between their health and their finances. Importantly, we are investing in the wellbeing of our young people. This includes targeted funding to strengthen youth mental health services, including to close gaps and ensure support is available earlier, when it can make the biggest difference. We are improving preventive care, from expanding access to dental services for children to strengthening immunisation programs for older Australians. Taken together, these measures reflect a clear priority: a stronger, fairer health system that delivers for every Australian.

Climate and energy issues are consistently among the most important concerns raised with me by my constituents. Many residents are increasingly focused on the transition to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy, as well as the need for practical policies that both reduce emissions and support local jobs and industries. I'm proud that our Cheaper Home Batteries Program is delivering real and measurable benefits for households and for our energy system. Since the program began in July last year, more than 414,000 batteries have been installed across the country, including nearly 7,000 here in the ACT. This effort has effectively doubled Australia's total battery capacity and builds on our world-leading adoption of rooftop solar, which is now installed on around one in three homes.

Together, these changes are transforming how energy is generated, stored and used in this country. Households are seeing meaningful savings on their power bills, and there are broader benefits as well. By reducing demand during peak periods, batteries are helping to ease pressure on the grid and put downward pressure on electricity prices for everyone. Across Australia, we are already seeing the impact. The recent release of the final default market offer reflects a significant structural shift in the energy system, driven by increased battery uptake and reduced reliance on fossil fuels, such as coal and gas.

There is always more work to do. Over 130 renewable projects have been approved. Already, over 50 per cent renewables are supplying Australia's grid, and that's growing. In contrast, the coalition left behind chaotic energy policies and opposed cost-of-living support when Australians needed it most.

The Albanese government is taking a different approach. We are focused on practical reforms that provide immediate relief for households, while laying the foundations for a stronger and more sustainable energy system. Our budget also supports cleaner and more affordable transport. Fringe benefits exemptions for electric vehicles have been extended through to 2029 and beyond, making these vehicles more accessible and reducing exposure to volatile fuel prices. I know this is very popular in my electorate, which has some of the highest uptake of EVs around the country. At the same time, we are strengthening energy security. We're increasing national fuel reserves by lifting coverage to 50 days and requiring gas companies to reserve 20 per cent of supply for the domestic market. We are also investing to expand our reserves of jet fuel and diesel. By keeping more fuel here and ensuring reliable domestic supply, we are better prepared for future shocks.

No matter what is happening around the world, the Albanese Labor government is taking action to support Australians at home. This is a budget that is delivering a fair go for all Australians.

Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the appropriation bills at a time when Australia stands at a crossroads. Across the world, we are seeing uncertainty, instability and conflict. The global order is shifting. Supply chains are fragile. The strategic environment in our region is deteriorating. Social trust is under pressure, and families are being stretched. Businesses are questioning whether this is still the country where effort is rewarded and risk is worth taking.

Australia itself is not experiencing conflict, but we are living in a world that demands preparedness, discipline and leadership. This should have been the moment when the government used its time in office to strengthen our economy, harden our national resilience, rebuild trust in our institutions and prepare Australia for the challenges ahead. Instead, Labor has turned this moment into tougher times for Australians. This is a government with a leadership deficit. It talks about responsibility but refuses to lead by example. It talks about fairness but divides Australians against each other. It talks about security but does not fund the capability required to keep Australians safe. It talks about aspiration while punishing those who work hard, save hard and take risks.

Australians are not stupid. They know what's happening in their own lives. They know whether the weekly shop costs more and whether the mortgage is harder to pay. They know whether their rent has gone up and whether their business is being buried under taxes, wages, regulation and uncertainty. And they know that, after years of Labor government, life has not become easier; it has, in fact, become harder. The first failing of this budget is economic. Before the latest global instability and conflict had fully flowed through to prices, inflation was already going the wrong way. The ABS reported annual CPI inflation at 4.6 per cent in March. That's up from 3.7 per cent the month before. Interest rates remain painful for Australian families, and the RBA cash rate is at 4.35 per cent, which means Australians are paying more, borrowing more, saving less and falling further behind. Yet what is Labor's answer—more taxes, more spending, more debt, more intervention, more government. And because Labor cannot manage money, it's coming after yours.

This budget attacks capital gains, negative gearing and discretionary trusts. It limits negative gearing. It changes capital gains tax arrangements. It introduces a minimum tax on discretionary trusts. These are not abstract accounting changes; they hit people who have done the right thing—small business owners, mum-and-dad investors, retirees, young savers and families who are all trying to build a future without depending on government. This is not tax reform; it's an assault on aspiration.

I'd like to read to the House a message that I received from a local business owner. These are their words, not mine. They say:

Hey Leon, I'm sure you are hearing this plenty but this budget killed me. I've already taken steps to close a new business that I was launching here and I'm shifting it home to NZ. The CGT greed and attack on bucket companies is the last straw. I know I'm not the only one. Both of my mentors left Australia 3 years ago and warned me. I went to Dubai last year after Albo tried to push for unrealised gains tax and I met with an accounting firm. When the accountants entered the room they said "sit down we know why you are here, every new customer since your budget has been an Australian" This Government has destroyed business opportunity. Wages are through the roof and now the shameless grab for 47% has broken me. I have been on call 24/7 for 20 years while I built a business and jobs. We were already taxed too much but I stayed anyway. I'm furious. If this gets through my wife and I are likely to pull the kids from school and start again in NZ. This is just greed and mismanagement on an epic scale.

This is the human consequence of this budget. This is what happens when government treats aspiration as a problem to be taxed, rather than a virtue to be encouraged. A business that shuts its doors employs no-one. A family that leaves Australia takes with it skills, capital, jobs and confidence. A young person who sees effort punished will eventually stop believing that the system is fair. Government does not create wealth. Businesses do, families do, workers do, entrepreneurs do and investors do. Labor's role is to create the conditions for them to succeed, but Labor's instinct is, quite frankly, the opposite—to regulate more, tax more, spend more and then act surprised when ambition leaves our shores.

The second failing of this budget is defence and national security. For years now, the Prime Minister and the defence minister have told Australians that we face the most complex and testing strategic circumstances since the end of the Second World War. On that they are right, but words are not capability, announcements are not deterrents and press releases alone do not defend a country. The government points to additional defence spending over the decade, but the question every member of this place should be asking is really quite simple: can Australia stand on its own two feet under this government? The answer is no.

Our alliances matter. ANZUS matters. AUKUS matters. The Five Eyes matter. Our partnerships with like-minded democracies matter. But partnerships alone are not enough. We must have the domestic preparedness to defend our national interest. We must have sovereign industry, fuel security and a defence force that's properly equipped, properly supported and ready for the realities of the decade ahead. This budget does not meet that test. It does not provide the urgent, credible and meaningful plan required to keep Australians safe. It does not move with the seriousness that the strategic environment demands, and it does not send the message to our region, nor to our allies or our adversaries, that Australia is prepared to do what is necessary.

My view is clear. Defence spending must rise to at least three per cent of GDP. We need a whole-of-nation national security defence strategy. We need serious investment in capability, and we need to back the Australian businesses, including on the Gold Coast, that are building the next generation of defence technology, not punish them with tax settings that drive them offshore and disincentivise their need to innovate. Fuel security is national security. Economic resilience is national security. Sovereign manufacturing is national security. Social cohesion is national security. The government does not seem to understand that all of these things are connected.

The third failing of this budget is social cohesion. Australia's social fabric is being pulled totally apart, and we are seeing this in our electorates across the country. This is a government that talks about inclusion, but it plays the politics of division. Right now, it is pitting young Australians against older Australians. It pits renters against mum-and-dad investors. It pits workers against small businesses. It pits people who have served and people who have sacrificed against those who are told that their challenges can only be solved by government—and not just by government but by government punishing someone else. That is not leadership; that is division dressed up as fairness.

Labor's tax changes are presented as 'intergenerational fairness', but let's call them what they are. They are intergenerational fraud. Young Australians who cannot afford to get a home are doing the responsible thing. They are saving. They are investing. They are trying to build a future through shares, ETFs, small businesses or other assets. But now Labor wants to punish them for doing exactly what previous generations were encouraged to do—work, save, invest and get ahead.

The same is true in housing and migration. Migration has been one of Australia's great success stories when it is well managed, when it is in the national interest and when infrastructure and housing keep pace. But under Labor, migration is running ahead of housing, it is running ahead of infrastructure and it is running ahead of essential services. Australia is on track to take in around two million migrants by the end of Labor's first two terms while homebuilding remains nowhere near what Australians need or what new migrants to Australia need. That does not strengthen social cohesion; it strains it. It puts pressure on rents. It puts pressure on roads. It puts pressure on schools, hospitals and communities. It makes it harder for young Australians to buy their first home and harder for families to find a rental. It diminishes the very settlement success that made Australia a strong multicultural nation. A government serious about social cohesion would not govern by wedge. It would not tell one group of Australians that their hardship is caused by another group of Australians. It would, however, bring people together around shared values, responsibility, contribution, fairness, opportunity and respect for the country that we are all blessed to call home.

In my first speech in this parliament I spoke about the need to look beyond the next election cycle and ask what Australia should look like in 100 years from now. That is the test of serious government—not what headline can be won today, not what political advantage can be seized tomorrow but what kind of country we leave to those who come after us. This budget fails that test, but there is another way.

The coalition have put forward a plan for a freer, fairer and better Australia. We will end Labor's inflation tax through a tax-back guarantee, indexing income tax thresholds to inflation so that Australians can keep more of what they earn. That is generational tax reform. We will link migration to housing supply so our intake is sustainable and in the national interest. And we will put Australians first by ensuring that essential welfare and the NDIS are preserved for Australian citizens. We will establish a future generations fund to bank resource windfalls, pay down debt and build national infrastructure. And we will deliver more fuel, more storage and more security. We will back small-business investment with an instant asset write-off of up to $50,000, and strengthen Australia's security with a whole-of-nation national security strategy and defence spending of at least three per cent of GDP. That's the difference between short-term politics and long-term responsibility.

Labor believes that government should take more, that it should spend more and that it should control more. We on this side of the House, the coalition, believe that Australians should be trusted to keep more of what they earn and that Australians should be trusted to own their homes, to build their businesses, to defend their country and to shape their own future. Australia is not a nation that is destined for decline. We are not a people who need to be managed by government into lower expectations. We are a country of builders, workers, families, migrants, entrepreneurs, volunteers and quiet Australians who ask for very little but give so much.

Our task, as I said in my first speech, is not to manage decline but to shape destiny. It's to restore the promise that effort will be rewarded, that freedom will be protected and that opportunity is not the privilege of a few but the inheritance of all. This budget does not do that. The coalition will.

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a simple question at the heart of these appropriation bills: what kind of future are we choosing to build, and who gets to share in it? The Albanese government's budget answers this question clearly. This budget is focused squarely on levelling the playing field—in our tax system, in our economy and in the services and infrastructure that underpin a good life. It is about our people. It's about the families I meet across the Bellarine, the young workers I speak to on the Surf Coast, the retirees I visit in Ocean Grove, the small-business owners in Leopold, the TAFE students from Grovedale, Newcomb, Queenscliff and the towns right across my region. It is about building a future that works for all of them.

This budget will strengthen housing, health, energy security and opportunity at a time when we have global uncertainty and supply chain pressures and when ongoing cost-of-living challenges are being felt in every household. It delivers cost-of-living relief now, while investing for the long term, and there's no better investment than education. From early years education to TAFE and university, this is where people build the skills, knowledge and experience to get ahead. That's why this budget includes investment in education.

This budget backs working Australians and the future they are trying to build for their families. A central pillar of this budget is redressing the imbalance in our tax system so that Australians know that if they work hard they can achieve. Our government knows that to do this we must make change. It's about real reform. It's not about taking the easy road. It's about setting our nation up for the future and ensuring that Australians continue to have a fair go. We are a hopeful nation, and this budget is about ensuring that hope endures.

From 1 July, every taxpayer will receive further tax relief, including a permanent additional tax offset worth $250. We're also introducing a $1,000 instant tax deduction for work related expenses, cutting through unnecessary complexity and putting money back into the hands of working people. Across all of our tax cuts, the average working Australian will be up to $2,800 better off each year. That is 13 million workers getting meaningful tax relief. For a teacher in Leopold, a nurse in Geelong, a cleaner working early shifts in Torquay or a tradie on the Surf Coast, this is practical relief that matters. These are people who are working hard, often across multiple responsibilities, and trying to keep up with rent, mortgages, groceries and bills.

We are also continuing to target fuel relief and strengthen domestic energy resilience, including measures designed to reduce exposure to volatile global energy markets. For a regional electorate like mine, where families often travel long distances for work, school and health care, that matters every single week. This is a budget that recognises pressure and responds with action, not rhetoric, and there's no clearer example of this than the housing measures we're putting in place.

Homeownership has always been central to the Australian story. It is not just an economic outcome; it's about security, stability and belonging. It is about knowing you can build a life in the community you grew up in. Too many young people are now finding that foundation increasingly out of reach. In towns like Torquay, Ocean Grove, Drysdale and across the Bellarine, young people are being priced out of the communities they call home. They are turning up to auctions and being outbid. They are watching homes in their neighbourhoods—homes that once symbolised possibility—slip further beyond reach. This is not just a housing issue. It is an intergenerational fairness issue, and it is one this budget takes seriously.

Right now, the system makes it easier to buy your 10th home than your first. House prices have risen about 400 per cent over the last two decades, and fewer young people own homes today than at any point in living history. We cannot stand by and let this keep getting worse. That is why this budget changes the rules on negative gearing and capital gains tax. From now on, negative gearing for residential property will only be available on new builds—homes that actually add to supply. Investors who already own properties will not be affected, and investors who buy new builds can still use negative gearing, but we are no longer allowing the current tax system to give investors a leg up over first home buyers competing for the same established properties. By directing investment into new builds, we are also helping build the homes Australia needs. These changes are expected to help around 75,000 Australians buy a home of their own.

On capital gains tax, we are moving back to discounting gains based on actual inflation—the system that was in place before 1999—rather than a flat 50 per cent discount that overtaxes some people and undertaxes others. These changes only apply to gains made from 1 July next year. Existing gains are not affected. Family homes are not affected and never will be under these changes. For many people investing in shares and managed funds, the new system could be as good or even better than what is in place today.

We are also making the tax treatment of discretionary trusts fairer. Right now, a high-income earner using a family trust to split income can end up paying a far lower effective tax rate than a nurse or a teacher earning a similar amount from wages. Under our changes, from 1 July 2028, trust income will be subject to a minimum 30 per cent tax rate—the same rate paid by an average middle-income worker. More than 95 per cent of individual taxpayers will not be affected by these changes at all. For small businesses, the vast majority will not be affected either. The capital gains tax concessions that most small businesses rely on are not changing, and we are making the $20,000 instant asset write-off permanent so small businesses can continue to invest with confidence. These are changes grounded in fairness. The vast majority of Australians go to work every day, get paid and pay their taxes. This budget makes sure those workers are treated equitably, not disadvantaged by a system that was skewed against them.

We are continuing large-scale investment in social and affordable housing after years of underinvestment. We are working with state and local governments to speed up approvals and unlock land supply, and we are supporting pathways that give first home buyers a fairer chance to compete, including the First Home Super Saver program and support for people to buy with a deposit of just five per cent. We are choosing to build, not wait, and to invest, not ignore, because young Australians who work hard, study hard and contribute to their communities deserve a genuine opportunity to put down roots where they grew up. This is not an aspiration for a select few. It should be a national expectation.

Health care is one of the clearest expressions of fairness in Australia. Across my electorate, from Armstrong Creek to Indented Head, from our growth corridors to coastal towns, people want to know they can access quality health care when they need it, without cost determining whether they can seek treatment. This is what this budget is all about. It strengthens Medicare. We are making Medicare urgent care clinics a permanent part of the health system. This includes the Torquay and Belmont clinics in my electorate. These clinics are already making a real difference in our region, reducing pressure on emergency departments in Geelong, shortening wait times and ensuring people can get treated quickly and locally. We are continuing to strengthen bulk-billing incentives, which are already improving access across the region and in our surrounding communities. And we are ensuring that GP visits become more affordable. Delayed care can become more serious if people do not go to their GP. It can be more expensive and more distressing for the individual, so strengthening bulk billing is good for people's health and good for the health of the economy.

We are also reducing the cost of medicines to $25 per script. For concession card holders, it's now $7.70. These are real savings that make a difference to pensioners, families and people managing chronic conditions across our community. We are also investing in the health workforce of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals because growing communities like mine require sustained investment in staffing, not short-term fixes. This is what a strong Medicare system looks like: accessible, affordable and universal.

My community cares deeply about our environment and its future. From the Bellarine coastline to the Surf Coast and inland family farming communities, people see the environment not as an abstract debate but as a place to live, work and raise their children. They see the impacts of changing weather patterns, coastal erosion and pressure on ecosystems that underpin tourism, agriculture, local identity and jobs. This budget invests in Australia's clean-energy transition not as an ideology but as a commitment to the next generation to deliver jobs and reduce emissions. We are investing in renewable energy generation, battery storage and transmission. We are supporting clean manufacturing and supply chains. We are ensuring regional and peri-urban communities are not left behind but are active participants in the jobs and industries of the future. For my communities, this means opportunity. It means secure long-term employment in emerging industries. Importantly, it actually means a healthier environment for our children and for their children. This transition must be fair, orderly and forward-looking because it is so important that we continue to strive towards our net zero target. Our government has committed to this, many across my communities have advocated for it and I will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure we do our very best to meet those targets.

This budget also continues the government's commitment to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Across my region, families value the NDIS for essential supports that enable independence, participation and dignity. The responsibility of government is to ensure that the scheme remains strong, fair and sustainable into the future.

This budget is also about trust—trust in a government that delivers and trust that people's taxes are being invested responsibly, effectively and fairly. This budget strengthens systems that must endure and ensures that essential programs are not only funded today but remain viable into the future. Budgets are not just about economic documents; they are building blocks to a good life. They are statements of values. This budget makes the Albanese Labor government's values clear. We choose fairness over inequality, investment over neglect, long-term stability and prosperity over short-term politics, practical solutions over slogans.

Labor's budget backs working Australians not just in principle but in practice. It supports families under pressure. It strengthens Medicare. It builds housing supply. It makes the tax system fairer and it invests in clean energy and our environment. This budget moves us in the right direction—a direction grounded in fairness, opportunity and responsibility. It recognises the pressures people are under and responds with practical measures that make a difference. It invests in the future, not just in the present. It ensures that Australia remains a hopeful nation that continues to believe in a fair go for all, where opportunity is not determined by postcode, background or circumstance but by effort, contribution and fairness.

David Batt (Hinkler, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027. Labor's budget of broken promises and higher taxes destroys any concept of a fair go for the people of Hinkler. I was on the road only last week with my mobile offices straight off the bat. At every stop on the map, from Fishermen's Park at Urangan to Pialba, from the foreshore at Bargara to Woodgate Beach and to the bustling main street of Childers and then across to Bundaberg, in every location I've heard loud and clear that confidence is low and so, too, is the trust in this Labor government. There's the lack of a fair go for veterans, the unfair private health insurance rebate removal for our over-65s, despair over Labor's toxic taxes and crippling conditions for small businesses.

After five Labor budgets, Australians are paying more, working harder and going backwards. We are faced with more debt, lower living standards and fewer homes for the people of Hinkler. Less than two per cent of new infrastructure pipeline projects outlined in the budget are for the regions. That's less than two per cent, and nothing at all for Hinkler—zero. The Labor government is cutting infrastructure payments to the states and territories by $4.7 billion over the budget forward estimates. But it did manage to find an additional $3.8 billion for the Melbourne Suburban Rail Loop—convenient timing in an election year for Victoria. And then there's a $3.9 billion cut to road funding.

With a massive cloud of uncertainty hanging over major projects in Hinkler, local councils and state government MPs are calling on the federal government to do more to help get boots on the ground. I back those calls for more action and less talk as costs for these projects rise and indeed threaten to blow out. Hinkler projects with previously committed federal funding are now sitting in limbo. As an example, what's next for Paradise Dam on the Burnett River? Will it be repaired, rebuilt or left as it is?

Long-term water security remains critical to the future of my region, and I'm committed to seeing the original capacity restored. And we must not forget it was a state Labor government that built this dodgy dam in the first place. Now we must make the right decisions, provide some real certainty to farmers and fund the fix appropriately. And downstream, just two and a half months since the Burnett River's major flood that inundated hundreds of Bundaberg homes and businesses—what's the next step for flood mitigation for Bundaberg? Locals have been waiting for something, anything, for 13 years.

As our Hinkler population booms, our road network is under significant pressure, but this Labor government is ignoring the fact that projects like the Maryborough-Hervey Bay Road and Pialba-Burrum Heads Road intersection upgrade are going nowhere, and the costs just keep climbing and work still yet to commence. I thank the state member for Hervey Bay, David Lee, and the state member for Maryborough, John Barounis, for their interest in this project as we work together to see some action fast. I also recently met with the full Fraser Coast Regional Council to talk about the challenges facing our region, considering the high population growth. In Bundaberg, there's money set aside for the Quay Street revitalisation project. Let's see some of these funds get spent and work commence.

Hinkler needs certainty, not broken promises and lost funds, especially at a time when costs are on the rise. Don't forget the regions like Hinkler. A fair share is what we need. Support for health services. Cheaper electricity. Cutting red tape. Yet, as these issues are pushed to the side under Labor, they will still find a way to spend another $18.2 billion on net zero—$18.2 billion. While I talk about big-ticket items such as roads and infrastructure, it's often the smaller projects that mean the most. Those opposite are quick to announce projects for their electorates, but the regions represented by the coalition are being conveniently forgotten.

Last September, I wrote to the Prime Minister. I outlined the commitments I made prior to the election, and, while these were promises from opposition, they are desperately needed now more than ever. They would support vital community and sporting upgrades across Hinkler. The projects include an upgrade to amenities at the Isis Cultural Centre in Childers; Hervey Bay Basketball Association's complete fit-out of its new home including canteen, office and accessible change rooms; Bundaberg Touch Association's upgrade to lighting and bathrooms; a new LED sign for the Woodgate and District Residents Association; upgrades to accessible bathrooms, kitchen and electrical systems at the Fraser Coast Swim Club; accessible bathrooms and a ramp at the Burgowan Bowls Club; installation of an automated irrigation system at the Burrum District Golf Club; and lighting upgrades for the Bundaberg Hockey Association

Funding of these Hinkler projects would play a key role in building stronger and more resilient regional communities. These projects were identified based on demonstrated community need, regional growth and their ability to provide long-term benefits. While these initiatives would not be considered costly, they would be welcomed for the betterment of the respective groups and organisations. Again, Hinkler just wants a fair share.

I've been advocating strongly for the continued delivery of specialist palliative care—fee-free—for local families. The Fraser Coast Hospice, originally funded with support from a previous coalition government, needs further assistance including community and business support. The shortfall is around $750,000 per annum. Fraser Coast Hospice is a six-bed, short-stay facility where people spend their final days and weeks surrounded by comfort, dignity and the people they love. This is something everyone deserves. Meanwhile, I recognise the efforts of the Bundaberg community hospice group in their bid to build a new hospice. We must do more to help people receive dignified care in their final moments.

Earlier this year, here in parliament, I joined the calls for more support to be delivered to neighbourhood centres. In regional Australia, in electorates like Hinkler, neighbourhood centres are an essential service, the heart of our communities. They foster safety, connection and social capital. They're the places where community connection happens. The Burrum Heads Neighbourhood Centre services a small but rapidly growing coastal community, and it has outgrown its home. Powered largely by volunteers, the team delivers outreach, counselling, training, sewing classes, a library, community transport, an op shop, community markets and so much more. I thank the Burrum Heads Neighbourhood Centre's Julie, Kathy and Lynne for updating me on their situation and sharing the story of the centre's growth over the past 15 years. Centres like this are especially called upon to stand up and support communities during times of crisis. So now, more than ever, we need to provide them with adequate support

To further break down the failures of this budget from Labor, I note that mining investment is collapsing to zero growth in 2027-28. Labor is prioritising gas market intervention and red tape over new investment, risking jobs, investment and future tax revenue.

Then there's tourism. As the whale-watching season draws closer, Tourism Australia is being cut by $49.4 million over four years including a $15.1 million reduction in 2026-27 at the worst possible time for regional tourism operators already battling soaring costs. Hardworking bodies like Bundaberg Tourism and Fraser Coast Tourism & Events are doing all they can with what they have. But, as fuel prices impact forward bookings and the cost of doing business skyrockets, cuts will make it even harder to survive.

Then there are the already infamous toxic taxes. Labor's broken promises will hit regional Australians in places like Hinkler the hardest, with the proposed capital gains tax changes set to damage Australian agriculture and family farms. ABARES data shows the average broadacre farm achieved just a 0.6 per cent rate of return on capital in 2023-24, with most long-term returns coming through land value growth rather than yearly income. Average broadacre land values have risen 9.8 per cent each year over the past decade, meaning Labor's CGT changes will punish farmers for long-term asset growth while discouraging younger Australians from entering agricultural pursuits. Combined with Labor's attack on negative gearing and trusts, these changes further undermine investment confidence, intergenerational family farming and regional small business.

Staying on farming, the lifeblood of Hinkler, Labor is cutting $191.6 million from the agriculture, fisheries and forestry portfolio over five years, with ongoing cuts of $30.5 million every year thereafter. More than $104.6 million is being stripped from regional and agricultural grant programs, including pest and disease preparedness—more hits for Hinkler. Another major issue is Labor's cap on Hinkler Veterans' allied health services. I've been very vocal on this and I'm simply urging the government to remove the uncertainty and reverse the decision to impose the $5,000 annual cap. Veterans should not be asked to bear the costs of Labor's budget repair.

While the Labor government has dealt Hinkler a budget of broken promises and toxic taxes, in stark contrast, the coalition has an alternative plan, a plan for a fairer, freer and better Australia. Only the coalition can deliver a fair tax-back guarantee. From 2029, a coalition government will index the bottom two income tax thresholds to inflation. This will fully protect around 85 per cent of income earners, with a relief of around $250 in year 1, growing to more than $1,000 a year in year 4. From 2031-32, the coalition will index the top two thresholds as well, fully protecting all income earners from inflation or from what many know as bracket creep. This is generational tax reform that is fair, simple and honest.

Only the coalition can fix the migration and housing crisis. We will ensure Australia only brings in as many people as it can house. Under the coalition's pledge net overseas migration will be capped each year at the number of new homes completed in Australia. The pledge will be backed by a housing supply package, including a $5 billion housing infrastructure fund to unlock up to 400,000 homes by funding critical last-mile infrastructure such as water, sewerage, power and access roads.

Only the coalition is putting Australians first. We will reserve welfare payments and future eligibility for the NDIS for Australian citizens. From 1 July 2028, access to 17 welfare payments and benefits will be limited to Australian citizens only. Future eligibility for the NDIS will also be limited to Australian citizens. If you commit to Australia, Australia will commit to you.

Only the coalition will deliver a future generations fund to ensure resource windfalls are used responsibly. Where resource windfalls are higher than forecast, a coalition government will bank 80c in every dollar into the future generations fund and quarantine at least 25 per cent of that fund for regional Australia. The fund will help pay down Labor's trillion dollars of debt and invest in nation-building infrastructure. These windfalls will help build the roads, rail, hospitals and schools our country needs.

Only the coalition can be trusted to deliver more fuel, more storage and more security for Australia. We will reduce pressure on families and small businesses by scrapping Labor's Safeguard Mechanism, a carbon tax on business that will cost refineries around $165 million by 2029-30. A coalition government will keep pushing for a daily public fuel dashboard so Australians can see supply levels in real time. The coalition will also unlock an Australian fuel supply by reversing regulatory barriers, reforming the EPBC Act, and fast-tracking national significant projects like Queensland's Taroom Trough—not far as the crow flies, just inland from my electorate. If fuel stops, Australia stops.

Importantly, only the coalition will boost small-business investment. The coalition will back small businesses to invest with a permanent $50,000 instant asset write-off. The coalition will also continue to fight Labor's changes to capital gains and trusts, which are an attack on small business. I'm conducting a small-business survey in Hinkler this month and, so far, 59 per cent of respondents are not confident with how things are travelling.

When it comes to strengthening Australia's security, only the coalition will make Australia stronger and safer in the face of global threats, with a whole-of-nation national security strategy and real increased funding for defence. By increasing defence spending to three per cent of GDP, the coalition will provide real increases to defence spending.

The coalition will back Australians who work hard, save hard and want to get ahead because our country is worth fighting for. The coalition will ditch Labor's capital gains tax and negative gearing changes. We will scrap net zero and deliver the lowest possible power prices. Australia needs to be a country that uses its land, its resources and its people. Labor may have given up on Hinkler and regional Australia, but the coalition never will. We are just getting started.

Basem Abdo (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the most significant budget to be brought before the parliament in many years. It seeks to address the many challenges that are being thrown our way, whilst also tackling the much-needed reforms to help level the playing field for Australians. The tax reform package at the heart of the government's fifth budget is focused on three clear objectives: making it easier for Australians to buy their first home, cutting income taxes for 13 million Australian workers and ensuring a fairer alignment in the tax treatment between people who earn income through work and those who derive income through other legitimate means.

A really important part of the budget is targeted towards workers, with the most meaningful permanent increase to the effective tax-free threshold for a long time—since Labor last increased it more than a decade ago. But it's not the only way that we're cutting income taxes. We're cutting income taxes five different times in three different ways. We've got the tax cuts already legislated, including another round in July this year and another round after that in July next year. Those opposite voted against those measures. The last time this parliament voted on tax relief for working Australians, they opposed it. They not only voted against it; they also promised to repeal it if given the opportunity. Had they succeeded, they would have taken money out of the pockets of working Australians.

We've got a $1,000 instant deduction next financial year, and now we have the working Australians tax offset announced in the budget. Altogether, our five different tax cuts will mean the average worker will benefit by up to $2,816 in 2028. We are also supporting the productive side of the economy, with more than $3.5 billion in new measures to reduce taxes on businesses and reforms that will reduce regulatory costs by more than $10 billion. It's tax reform designed to lift productivity and investment in productive assets.

Having grown up in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, I've always been determined to fight to ensure that aspiration is afforded to everyone who works and contributes, not just an exclusive realm for people who already own significant wealth while leaving policy settings in place which serve to leave the many behind. This is what this budget is fundamentally about: rewarding work, aspiration and restoring fairness. This budget shows ours is a government determined to tackle the problems facing this country. It is a calm, thoughtful response to a generational problem decades in the making.

I fail to understand the purpose of those opposite as political parties and as an opposition coming into this chamber to argue and fight for the status quo. It's the most futile approach at an attempt at progress and delivery by demanding Australia stand still, racing ahead on neutral—and that's the good bits. All too often their policies are in reverse, as though we're back to the future.

This is not a budget that will fix every problem for every person. No budget will, and nor will any single policy lever. But it is a budget delivered by a government determined to throw everything at keeping us on the course of delivery that this government has already started.

For decades, thanks to a legacy of Liberal Party rule for 20 of the last 30 years, Australia has been shaped by an economic agenda built around privatisation, economic rationalism and the view that Australia should remain nothing more than a quarry. The Liberals told us that governments needed to get out of the way, that governments needed to step back, that governments needed to leave essential parts of our society and economy solely to the private sector and that, if we did this, the natural neoliberal order of things would deliver prosperity. They even had robots chasing our most vulnerable people, such was the contempt they had for ordinary Australians.

If we look around, the consequences are visible right across Australia. Entire industries that once provided secure, dignified employment were hollowed out. Manufacturing, once the backbone of working-class communities, delivering on aspiration and uplifting communities, were pushed to the brink. Good, secure, well-paying jobs that allowed families to buy a home, raise children and build a future were increasingly replaced with insecure work, stagnant wages and rising costs of living. At the heart of this was an economic philosophy that treated markets as the sole solution to every problem, where Treasury and government's role was to deliver the axe for cuts and reversal of the role of government. This ideology put forward that government had to step away from actually functioning as a government and that an unfettered economy would somehow regulate itself in the interests of working people, with no role or recourse for government. We saw it in their inability to even bother to appoint a housing minister for most of their decade in power. Energy generation was increasingly privatised, with the assumption that competition alone would deliver affordability and security, so they allowed our refineries to close. They allowed our national strategic reserves to be held in Texas on the other side of the world, which meant it was not here in our nation and not here in reserve. That's the strategic prowess of those opposite.

Instead of progress and a future that delivered for working people, what Australians have experienced are soaring rents, increasingly impossible house prices and rising power bills. Listen to the irony of the former treasurer under the Abbott government, Joe Hockey, who said on his way out:

… negative gearing should be skewed towards new housing so that there is an incentive to add to the housing stock rather than an incentive to speculate on existing property.

The difference is we've got a government with the guts to actually do something about it, to budget it and to deliver it, as tough as it is, so that the odds are not increasingly stacked against Australians, especially younger Australians, for forever and a day.

That very same former treasurer today talks about domestic innovation, forgetting his record of trashing and decimating the very industries that help power science and innovation in this country. He spent most of his time chugging at cigars, budgeting and subsequently celebrating the demise of our manufacturing industry on the balconies of Parliament House. Rather than actually offering something to the Australian people and rather than actually having a policy alternative that we can even begin to work with and debate, the opposition resorted to what could possibly be their last refuge in the dividing of Australians into migrants and Australians—whatever that means—and into permanent residents and citizens.

The 2.7 million small businesses in Australia are the backbone of the Australian economy and are the heart and soul of local economies in communities like mine. That's why this budget is backing them in. This budget will make the $20,000 instant asset write-off permanent. It will give businesses more certainty to invest and grow. Not only will this change bring around $890 million in cash-flow support over the next five years; it will slash compliance costs for small businesses. This change will also save hardworking business owners 366,000 hours on record keeping. This budget will see permanent two-year loss carryback for companies with turnover of up to $1 billion from 1 July. It will help ensure that small businesses can return to profitability faster and have the confidence to invest earlier and withstand volatility that may come their way. Our small business tax cuts will also look towards helping new and innovative businesses with the introduction of loss refundability to help startups grow in their first two years, expanding tax incentives for venture capital to help unlock more investment in young and expanding businesses.

This budget continues the massive investments our government has undertaken when it comes to health care. One of the proudest things I speak about in this government's delivery is in the area of health care. Making sure that health care is accessible and well funded makes the world of difference for so many in my community. In just this term of parliament, the number of Medicare bulk-billing practices in our area increased to 46, with our bulk-billing rate going from less than 40 per cent when I was first elected to more than doubling to over 90 per cent. Our health investment is breaking down barriers not only when it comes to seeing a doctor but also when it comes to getting the treatment one needs as well.

We've cut the cost of medicines on the PBS to $25 and $7.70 for concession card holders whilst continuing to add more medications to the PBS. I'm pleased to inform the House that 2,198,573 is the number of cheaper pharmacy scripts issued in our community. This investment has already made a positive impact on my community. That's why I was pleased to see this budget go even further, in particular with the $25 billion in additional public hospital funding, which will go a long way to improve hospital wait times, reduce emergency department crowding and free up hospital beds.

I welcome the government's implementation of a domestic gas reserve requiring LNG producers to reserve 20 per cent of exports for the Australian market. This is important reform. Manufacturers in my electorate know that putting downward pressure on domestic gas prices will support local industry and better shield Australians from global price volatility. The reality is the conflict in the Middle East is affecting communities here at home, from the bowser to the factory floor. It's our job, and it's been a focus of this government that Australians should not continue paying the price for instability overseas. That's why the budget's $3.2 billion investment in an Australian fuel security reserve is so important, strengthening our national fuel security by increasing diesel and jet fuel reserves.

There is a clear difference between this government and those opposite. We want to see the issues in the housing market for young people and we want to fix them, rather than doing absolutely nothing about them. We see the rise in social and economic and political division and dislocation around the world, and we want to shield Australia from it, while all three arms of those opposite want to import it, copy it, fuel it and, ultimately, be consumed by it. When younger Australians lose faith that hard work leads to stability, security and opportunity, the social contract itself begins to fray.

This moment calls for courage, for reform and for governments willing to recognise that economic policy must serve people not just markets. We have before us a generational opportunity born from a generational necessity, an opportunity to rebalance our economy towards productive investment, to make housing accessible again, and an opportunity to rebuild the industries, to strengthen public infrastructure and restore the principle that prosperity should be accessible to all Australians. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to restore a fighting chance for younger Australians to own their own home, a fighting chance that secure work can deliver a decent life and a fighting chance that there is a generation that will not simply just inherit rising costs and shrinking opportunities but a country that invests in its future and a government to do what is necessary to adjust the policy settings that have long held Australians back and left them behind.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:33