Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

As the dust settles on Labor's budget of broken promises, higher taxes, a lower standard of living and less housing, young Australians are being forced to wake up and pay attention. Young Australians are waking up to the realisation that Labor's claim of intergenerational fairness is actually a fraud against young Australians. Young Australians are waking up to the news of Labor's youth tax. What is Labor's youth tax exactly? Labor's youth tax seeks to tax the livelihoods of young Australians. The budget papers estimate that gross debt for Australia will soon reach $1 trillion, growing to $1.2 trillion. Just think about that for a second. What is $1 trillion? A thousand billion equals a trillion or a million million equals a trillion. It is phenomenal. It is almost unfathomable. If you're a young Australian, it's your problem—because that is Labor's youth tax. You will be required through future taxes to meet that debt cost. That debt cost comes with interest payment bills of $42 billion a year. Just think about that. What is $42 billion a year? It's $80,000 a minute in interest payments on $1 trillion. And if you're a young Australian, that's your problem. If you're a young Australian, you have to pay that in future taxes. That is Labor's youth tax, and that is the realisation that young Australians are coming to.

And if you're a young Australian who is renting, or if you're a young Australian who is hoping to rent one day, in preparation for getting your own home, you need to be ready for the fact that rents are expected to increase by at least 10 per cent. In the budget papers the Labor government tries to tell you that those rental increases will be limited to $2. In the media this morning, that has been called 'delusional'. Young Australians will be hit with higher rents. Why? Because changes to negative gearing and changes to the capital gains tax, detailed in the budget, will make it harder for property investors. It will lead to a decline in the number of rental properties that are available to young Australians.

Increasing rents makes it harder for young Australians, and that is the consequence of Labor's plans to tax, Labor's plans to change negative gearing and capital gains tax. In the media today someone has said, 'You can't trust the government; they are just making up the numbers.' And young Australians pay a hefty price for Labor's economic failures.

But if you're a young Australian, there's an alternative, and we'll hear about that alternative tonight. That alternative comes in the form of Angus Taylor's budget-in-reply speech, a speech that will present a plan to restore our standard of living and protect our way of life in Australia. It will be a plan that focuses on getting rid of Labor's toxic taxes, a plan that reduces taxes on homes, a plan that removes taxes on small businesses, a plan that reduces taxes on hardworking Australians and a plan that will give hope to younger Australians. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.