Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

As Labor rammed their toxic taxes through parliament last week, we learnt of their secret widow tax. Labor have not only attacked young people, senior Australians, small-business owners, farmers and investors in their budget, but, now, have gone after the widows. Is there anyone Labor does not see as a tax opportunity? It was only after this widow tax was identified that the government admitted that they had a problem and that they would fix it later. Why later? Why not now?

We've seen this movie before, sadly—a promise from a Labor government that cannot be trusted just for that promise to be broken and for more Australians to be worse off. Labor wants to fix the widows tax later in the year, but that is not the right thing to do. The right thing to do is to fix it now, which is why the coalition is putting forward amendments to end Labor's cynical tax. This provides a great challenge for the government, for those sitting opposite. If they vote against these amendments, their promise would be exposed for what it is—yet another Labor mistruth.

What should we do? Let's help the widows urgently. I don't mind telling you, Madam Deputy Speaker Claydon, that I've been in this exact position myself. The last thing widows in Australia need is for their lives to be more complicated when they are at their most vulnerable. Labor, do better and act now.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The budget delivered record investments in Northern Territory health care—an additional $741 million for NT public hospitals over the next five years, bringing total Commonwealth hospital funding to $3.5 billion over five years, which is a lot for the Northern Territory. This funding will improve hospital waiting times, reduce emergency department strain and crowding and free up hospital beds. This builds on the unprecedented 30 per cent increase in NT hospital funding that we delivered in this financial year. No Commonwealth government in history has invested at this level into Northern Territory health. This budget also delivers $95.5 million for remote primary healthcare services in the Territory and a $66 million one-time untied fixed funding amount to address some of the challenges in delivering health services in the Northern Territory.

NT parliament estimates have confirmed that the CLP NT government is timing their health policy to the election cycle, as CLP health minister Edgington said himself. A new Royal Darwin Hospital is going to be needed, and Territory Labor is committed to it. Of course, they'll need significant funding from the Commonwealth, and I am committed to that. The CLP is not interested, but Labor will get it done.

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

I can tell you this: people in Lyne are fed up with this Albanese Labor government. They're fed up with being told one thing before an election and getting something completely different afterwards. The Albanese government promised no changes to negative gearing and no changes to capital gains tax, yet here we are watching Labor make policy on the run, scrambling to fix problems of its own making and expecting Australians to simply accept it. Nowhere is that clearer than with the so-called widow tax.

When Labor pushed through its property tax changes, Australians were told existing investment properties would be protected, but buried in the legislation was a drafting flaw that meant a surviving spouse could lose those protections simply because their husband or wife had died. The same issue could arise following a divorce settlement. In Lyne, people are asking a simple question: who on earth thought that was fair? Many families in regional Australia have spent decades building a nest egg, often through a modest investment property. They're teachers, tradies, nurses, small-business owners and retirees trying to provide security for their family.

Labor faces a simple test this week. If they're serious about fixing the widow tax, they'll vote for the coalition's amendments. If they vote no, Australians will know it was just Labor again being loose with the truth. The Albanese government increasingly resembles the captain of the Titanic after spotting the iceberg. Rather than change course, Labor keeps streaming straight ahead, convinced it knows best.