Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers to all coalition questions during question time today.

I want to talk about three issues arising from question time today in terms of the answers given to questions asked by coalition members: integrity, equity and efficiency. Now, let's talk about integrity first. It is a fact that the Prime Minister went to the Australian people no less than 50 times before the last election and said there would be no change to the capital gains tax regime, said there would be no change to negative gearing and said there would be no change in relation to superannuation tax arrangements. That's a fact. It is a fact that after the election we saw those changes put in place after the Prime Minister said he would not put them in place. That is a broken promise. It goes to the integrity of our political system and, in particular, in relation to superannuation. As my colleague Senator Canavan said on 10 October 2025, the ABC reported that the Prime Minister said in relation to superannuation:

… there are no policy changes, our policy stands.

Yet, just this week, the Labor Party has entered into a deal with the Greens. We heard the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Wong, refer to 'the terms of an agreement' between the Labor Party and the Greens.

What about the Australian people? Where do they fit into this equation? What about the commitment to the Australian people that was made before the last election? What about their 'agreement' with the politicians representing the Labor Party, who were seeking to be elected on the platform that there would be no changes to capital gains tax, to negative gearing or to superannuation? What about the mandate that the Australian people gave to the Labor Party, based on the false pretence that the Labor Party would stick by the Prime Minister's word that there would be no changes? That's the integrity question, and that will hang around the Prime Minister's neck like an albatross until the next election.

Then we have the question of equity. The point that Senator Bragg made was this: under the current arrangements, before the deal between the Labor Party and the Greens, self-managed super funds had an ability to go into the market and enter into appropriate arrangements to borrow to acquire residential property for investment purposes. Whilst I acknowledge that the Leader of the Government in the Senate referred to David Murray, those arrangements are entered into on the basis of limited recourse loans, which protect the body of the superannuation fund from entering into negative territory, so there are already probity and fidelity arrangements in place. What's changed is that the Prime Minister said there would be no change and there now is going to be a change because of the agreement between the Labor Party and the Greens.

The third point relates to efficiency and bureaucracy. CPA—Certified Practising Accountants—Australia have estimated that over $800 million is going to have to be spent before the end of the next financial year on valuing assets because of the Labor Party's change. Because of the Labor Party's broken promise, $825 million will be paid by valuers to go all over Australia and value all sorts of assets that might be subject to capital gains tax. That's over $800 million spent on that compliance activity when Australia is in a productivity crisis. Tell me how that makes sense when Australia is facing a productivity crisis—$825 million being spent on valuers and millions being spent on accountants. (Time expired)