Ralph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia is sleepwalking into collectivism. That's what is happening. The tragedy is that many Australians are cheering it on. Every year, there are more regulations, more restrictions and more bureaucrats telling ordinary Australians what they can say, what they can own, what they can build and how they should live. Private property rights are being eroded. Businesses are buried under red tape for a species treated like a dangerous inconvenience. Australians are now monitored, censored and intimidated for expressing opinions that, only a few years ago, were considered completely normal.

What replaces freedom? I'll tell you what. It's dependency—a society where more and more people rely on the government, on their payments. They rely on things like government approvals, government permissions just to survive. Productive Australians—what's happening there? They're being punished. Risk takers are demonised. Success is treated with suspicion. Treasurer Chalmers's budget yesterday proved exactly that. This government is intent on dragging people down. There is no aspiration anymore and no incentive to build wealth, create business or strive for success. Instead of lifting up Australians through freedom and opportunity, this government, in my opinion, is trapping them in dependency, while at the same time calling it compassion. It's garbage. Meanwhile the state grows larger, more intrusive and more powerful.

Australians were told to trade liberty for safety, and what did they get? They didn't get either of those things. The government expanded its authority into every corner of Australian life, and millions applauded when it happened. A nation once built by rugged, self-reliant people is slowly becoming a nation of compliance and dependence. You must take responsibility and speak the truth, even when it is unpopular, because, when a nation loses its courage, it will also eventually lose its freedom.