Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

The reason that this matter of urgency is before the chamber is that the nation has clearly a need for more taxes under this government because we have a massive spending problem. Effectively, the problem that we all now face because of Mr Chalmers's management of the economy is spending GDP going from 24 per cent to 27 per cent under this government. As a result, you need higher taxes, and that's why the government has presided over an agenda to increase taxes over the last three years. I'll step through some of those in a moment.

The reason that this is an urgency motion today is to highlight the fact that the new taxes, whether it be the bedroom tax or other taxes on people's wealth or on people themselves, are necessary because of the government's spending problem. In fact, when Ken Henry and others that have long been advisers to both sides of government last week made the point inside the summit that fiscal rules were a good idea, he was told by Mr Chalmers that he was wrong, that the government wouldn't be having any fiscal rules and that the government would spend what it thought was required. That is the position of the Commonwealth government.