Tom French (Moore, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Budgets are ultimately about choices. This budget makes a clear choice: it chooses workers, first home buyers and a tax system that rewards work, not just asset ownership. For too long, young Australians have been told to work hard, save hard and wait their turn. But, in communities like Moore, that turn has been pushed further and further away. A young couple in Kingsley working full time can now look at the suburb they grew up in and realise that the front door of homeownership is quietly closing in front of them. That is not aspiration; that is a system out of balance.

This bill cuts taxes for working Australians and delivers a $1,000 instant deduction for work related expenses. It also starts to fix the housing tax settings. Negative gearing will continue to support investment in new homes because supply matters. On capital gains tax, the government is returning to a fairer principle: tax real gains, not inflation. Indexation means investors are taxed on above-inflation profit, not paper gains. Existing investment decisions are protected.

So let us be clear: this is not a tax on inheritance. It is not a tax on the family home. And it is not the end of aspiration. It is a reform that says aspiration should belong to the workers and first home buyers too, not just those already holding the assets. That is a fair choice, and I support the budget.

Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd just like to take this opportunity to let some of the members across the aisle understand the human face of some of the people this budget is hurting. Recently I heard from Andrew. Andrew is a young family man in my seat of Cook. This is what he wrote:

My name's Andrew and I'm writing to you for help …

…   …   …

My wife's a nurse and I'm a teacher …

He says:

Life has been hard for someone in his late 20s to try and build a future for my family, as with many other Australians.

Inflation has made it difficult to keep up saving for a house, and my wife and I have been saving, investing, working hard to try and buy a home to call out own.

The hard part in the Labor government, without asking its citizens, has decided to change the capital gains tax discount, which means the investments we've worked so hard to build and risked so much money on will now only give us half the profit we would have, and is now dragging us further away from having a home to call our own.

Please, please, please rectify this …

He is begging.

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

Did you correct him? Did you tell him the truth? Are you going to keep lying to him?

Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) | Link to this | Hansard source

I did not correct him. The members on the other side might want Andrew to be corrected, but I'm here to stand up for Andrew. I'm not going to let the members on the other side shout across the aisle to me and tell me Andrew needs to be corrected. Andrew's begging for me to rectify this, and I will work my guts out to axe these toxic taxes so we rectify it, and I will not correct Andrew—

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

Member for Griffith.

Honourable members interjecting—

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) | Link to this | Hansard source

It was an unparliamentary comment. I ask the member for Sydney to withdraw.

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

I did not hear any comment.

Honourable members interjecting—

When you want to correct a parliamentary procedure, stick by ones yourself too, okay? Is there a matter to be withdrawn?

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

I withdraw.

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

Thank you for pleasing the House.