Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the following:

(1) the order of the day for the resumption of debate on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 2) Bill 2026 being called on immediately;

(2) debate on the second reading of the bill continuing for a period of no longer than one hour;

(3) questions then being immediately put on any second reading amendments and on the second reading of the bill;

(4) consideration in detail then proceeding immediately, with the Leader of the Opposition being permitted to move amendments which are not relevant to the subject matter of the bill; and

(5) any questions necessary to complete the remaining stages of the bill then being put immediately.

Yesterday marked 90 days since Labor's bin fire of a budget, a budget full of toxic taxes—taxes on housing; taxes on savings; taxes on investment; taxes on small businesses, some of the very hardest working Australians; taxes on shares, on crypto and on every asset class; taxes on aspirational young Australians trying to build a nest egg; taxes on family businesses, who work day and night, weekday and weekend, to try to make ends meet; taxes on farmers; and taxes on charities. The cruellest tax of them all is a wicked tax on widows and divorcees. What type of government thinks that it's acceptable to whack a tax on Australians who are grieving at the loss of a spouse or a partner? What type of government sees dollar signs when looking at someone who's gone through a traumatic break-up? What type of government is so desperate for money that it goes after Australians who are the victims of family and domestic violence? I'll tell you what type of government—a government that has lost its moral compass, a government so heartless that it goes after Australians who are heartbroken and hurt.

The justifiable public backlash to Labor's budget is of a magnitude unlike anything we have seen in recent times. Australians are rightly calling it the worst budget in living memory. Labor's budget has blown up in their faces, and don't they know it? That's why they've proposed carve-outs. That's why the Treasurer wanted extraordinary powers to make captain's calls. That's why, when the Treasurer appeared on the ABC's Insiders program and was asked about his widows tax, he said he would fix it. He said it. Well, more than 40 days have passed since the Treasurer made that promise. His word ain't his bond; that's for sure.

And where's the legislation? It's nowhere to be seen. Instead, the government is doing a two-week consultation period before it brings forward any legislation. 'Lazy Labor' is doing the consultation now that it should have done before the budget. All this procrastination and delay means one thing: the government won't fix its cruel widows tax until as late as September or even October at best. Who knows? You never know, when this government says something, whether it is ever going to happen. In the meantime, widows, divorcees and victims of family and domestic violence will be hit by Labor's toxic taxes. We've seen the ramifications of this tax. News.com.au recently reported on the effects of the widows tax on a 44-year-old domestic abuse victim. The woman couldn't refinance an investment property she co-owned with her ex-partner because of Labor's negative gearing changes, and that means she could lose a retirement asset she spent more than 15 years building.

The widows tax is completely unacceptable, and we're not going to let Labor get away with it. We're not going to let Australians endure this government's incompetence and inaction one moment longer. Today we seek to suspend standing orders to force the government to fix its treasury laws amendment bill. We want the widows tax gone, and we're putting forward an amendment to the government's bill to repeal Labor's widows tax. If the government is serious about fixing the problem it has created, it should welcome our amendment today. The widow tax can be scrapped in this sitting period right now, and there's no reason this mean-spirited tax shouldn't be scrapped in this sitting period.

We have another amendment too. Under the Albanese Labor government's watch, 30 businesses a day are going bust. It's a record number. Small and family businesses' dreams are going up in smoke in record numbers. They're feeling the pressure that Labor has put on them on every front—higher taxes, soaring energy bills, choking regulation—and they need tax relief. They need renewed confidence. They need to be able to reinvest in their businesses, which is also an investment in their communities and in our country. In the coalition's budget reply, I announced our plan to back small and family businesses, those with a turnover of under $10 million, with a permanent $50,000 instant asset write-off. Today we seek to amend the government's bill to legislate our small business tax deduction, which would be welcome relief for those hardworking small and family businesspeople who are doing it so tough right now.

Just as small businesses need tax relief, so do hardworking Australians. Inflation doesn't simply make prices increase—and in fact, we know they've been increasing faster than incomes. When Australians' wages rise to keep up in an attempt to at least keep up with inflation, their income creeps into higher tax brackets. This is a dirty little secret of this government. The higher inflation goes and the longer it lasts, the more Australians are paying in income tax every single year through bracket creep and the more the Albanese government takes from Australians every year.

It turns out that the Treasurer's homegrown inflation, their inflation, is driving up their tax revenues and they love it. But I tell you who doesn't love it: the Australian people. In the coalition's budget reply, I announced our plan to stop this dishonest inflation tax. We will index tax thresholds to protect Australians' incomes from inflation. A typical worker will be better off $250 in year 1, $500 in year 2, $750 in year 3, $1000 in year 4 and much more than that at current inflation rates, which are well above the targeted 2½ per cent. Our policy will give Australians a bigger tax cut each year than Labor's would without those tax increases. This is genuine tax reform. This is what tax reform is about—not raising taxes, as those opposite define it.

Today I call on the government to support our tax-back guarantee. If Labor is for scrapping its widows tax, if Labor is for providing small and family businesses with proper tax deductions at a time when they need it most, and if Labor is for providing every Australian with a bigger and better income-tax cut, then the Albanese government will welcome this debate and agree to the amendments that the coalition has put forward today.

Everything we are asking for here today is reasonable, and the choice for the Albanese government is very simple: Labor can act in the national interest or remain stubbornly self-interested. Sadly, we see it repeated time and time again—they are stubbornly self-interested. But here's an opportunity to show Australians they're prepared to act in the national interest. Labor can show some humility or double down with their hubris. Labor can seek some redemption and fix their bad budget or fix nothing and face further condemnation from Australians. Australians are watching. They want better, and here's an opportunity for Labor to give it to them.

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

Is this suspension seconded?

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) | Link to this | Hansard source

It is seconded. I want to start by commending the Leader of the Opposition for moving this suspension of standing orders. It is so important for so many Australians who are looking on this parliament right now—after a train-wreck budget that has put to an end so many people's aspirations and ambitions because the Treasurer and the Prime Minister can't keep their greedy mitts off people's hip pockets and wallets—to get a sense of relief, because there are so many people who make an effort to back themselves and to get ahead, to save, to invest, to build a future and retirement security for themselves, and the government can't control themselves.

We know that this is a tax. The widows tax is not a tax that existed before the budget; it was a tax introduced in the federal budget. And it was only when it was exposed that the government was coming after grieving widows, the victims of domestic violence and those who are experiencing the horrible consequences of divorce and death that the government turned around and said they're going to do something about this tax, but where is it? We're here to have the discussion, have the debate, pass the legislation and repeal the tax right now. But the government don't want to. It's almost like they want to play politics with grieving widows, the victims of domestic violence and those with debt, and that is the tragedy. We're happy to have a debate here. We're happy to bring it on right now.

It's only a question of whether the government rise to the challenge and actually honour their word. I do concede that they have not said they are going to introduce this change 50 times over but maybe for once they could actually honour their word. There are so many Australians who are looking at this parliament and looking at their smashed dreams, especially if they're in small business, as the Leader of the Opposition outlined. On housing, on rents, we have seen tax after tax after tax and it's just a disgrace that the government cannot help themselves but to hit widows in their hip pockets.

We need change and, as the Leader of the Opposition quite rightly outlined, the time is now. But the only reason this government won't do it is because they want to keep the money off grieving widows and, of course, the victims of domestic violence and those who have lost their spouses. This is a disgrace. They could change it now. They want the tax revenue because they can't control their spending addiction.

I know the member for Sturt during the winter recess had a number of things to say, highlighting the absurdities and the inconsistencies of the government's budget. She wrote to her constituents, pleading, begging for support after, quite justifiably, constituents had written to her and said, 'If the objective is to make housing affordability for first homeowners better, why are you hitting my small business? Why are you hitting my investments? Why are you hitting widows with new taxes? And, of course, in a desperate plea to try and explain it away, she said, 'Actually, you're right. It doesn't make any sense.'

So where in the chamber right now is the member for Sturt, to vote on this legislation? I know the member for Hindmarsh, the Minister for Health and Ageing, is out there trying to wangle his way over to the chair right there, and maybe he's brought a prime-ministerial discipline to the member for Sturt and expelled her from the chamber. But now is the time. If the members just brought on the debate, brought on a vote, we could repeal this tax right here, right now, so we had a pathway forward.

I know the members on the government side won't like these changes, particularly the amendments that have rightly been put forward by the Leader of the Opposition, because, if they were passed, it would mean lower taxes on Australians, it would mean the legislation of the tax-back guarantee, and, most importantly, it would mean that the government weren't able to be the silent thief in the night on inflation by adding new taxes. That's what we have in our plan as part of making sure that there is a better pathway forward for this government.

What we know is this government, at every point, has gone after the hip pockets of Australians. Every time they've had a chance to increase a tax, they've gone about doing so. Every time they've been able to find a vulnerable section of the community or somebody who's backing themselves to get ahead or somebody who's actually employing the next generation of Australians, their only solution has been, 'How do we take our share of those people's incomes, growth and wealth?' because they can't manage their spending addiction. It's an old truism, but it remains the same: when they run out of money, they come after yours. So I fully support this suspension of standing orders, and I hope the members opposite will bring on debate and save Australia's widows.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

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

The question is that the debate on the suspension of the standing order motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition be adjourned.