Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) | Hansard source

I too rise to speak against Labor's toxic tax agenda and the dangerous deal that they have done with the Greens at the expense of the Australian people. Sadly, Australians were told one thing by the Prime Minister before the election, but, worse than that, they weren't told it only once but time and time again. In fact, over 50 times prior to the last election, the Australian people were looked in the eye by the Prime Minister when he was asked a very direct question, 'Will there be any changes to capital gains tax, if we give you our vote?' He said to them: 'Hand on heart, my word is my bond. No, there will not be.' He was asked the other question, 'If I give you my vote, will there be any changes to negative gearing?' Again, hand on heart, he looked them in the eye and he said, 'My word is my bond. No, there will not be.'

There's a word, sadly, we're not able to say in this place. It begins with an L and it ends in an R. Fill in the two vowels yourself. That is what the Prime Minister is. He has been proven to be time and time again a person who will look the Australian people in the eye and say, quite frankly, whatever he likes and whatever it takes to actually get into power. Then, as he has now said, he will just change his position. Well, shame on you, Prime Minister. Every day between now and the next election, the coalition are going to call out the fact that you told the Australian people one thing 50 times prior to the election, then, as soon as you could, you did a dirty deal with the Australian Greens and, as you've said, you just 'changed your position'.

Australians know they have been misled by this prime minister. This is a government that has now abandoned any form of pretence. This is a government who are now quite happy to say the Australian people: 'Yes, we told you one thing before the election. We said there'd be no changes to capital gains tax. We said there'd be no changes to negative gearing. Guess what? We never, ever meant it. But we sucked you in at the time. You believed us.' Sadly, now, across the board, Australians will pay the price.

What is going to be rushed through the Senate tomorrow under a guillotine, with little to no time for debate? They're not reforms. They're not productivity measures. They're certainly not economic-growth measures. They are taxes, and they are tax increases, designed to fund a government that, sadly, cannot manage its own money. The simple truth—and it has been said time and time again—is this: Labor cannot manage its own finances. The sad reality is that, when it runs out of money, it comes after yours.

Of course, this comes on top of the fact that Australians are already struggling. Families are struggling to pay mortgages. Renters are struggling to find homes, and those who can get into a home are now paying increasingly high rents. You now just need to go for a walk in the morning in local suburbs, and you will see men and women—working, with a dual income, doing the right thing—living in cars with their children. They are casualties of a Labor government that has given up any pretence of actually caring.

Small businesses—you walk down a street in your local community, and what do you see? You see empty window after empty window after empty window—'For lease', 'For lease', 'For lease'. When you inquire, 'What happened to the small business that used to be in there?' they look you in the eye, and they say: 'Cost of living—Labor's cost of living. They couldn't afford their energy bills so they had to close their doors.' And people had stopped going into the small business because they didn't have the money to actually make a purchase, so what happens to the small business? It closes its doors.

At the heart of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 and the Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026—and I think this is what has upset so many people—are young Australians who are doing the right thing by the government. They were actually saving for home deposits. They were buying shares. They were doing electronic fund transfers. They were putting that little bit away so that, one day, they could have what so many on the Labor side of politics have had and what so many Australians have had—the ability to buy a home, to negative gear it and to maybe one day sell that home so they could have a little bit of money to help fund their retirement. What has Mr Albanese said? He's said, 'Guess what? That's too good for you.' The way so many Australians funded their retirement—as I said, they were doing the right thing by the government. Sadly, that aspiration, that ladder, has now been pulled out from under them.

What's Labor's answer to all of that? More taxes—just like a good socialist government always does. Their answer is more taxes on the people who save, more taxes on the people who invest, more taxes on the people who employ Australians—the good old small businesses out there—and more taxes on the people who take risks. This is a country that was once built on the fact that it didn't matter who you were, where you came from or what your status was in life. If you embraced an opportunity and took a risk, you could be successful in life. Labor's answer to that now is: 'Well, we're going to take a bit of that. Thanks for taking the risk. Because we are no longer able to manage the economy, we're actually going to take a bit of what you've made.' These are more taxes on the very people that we want to see get ahead, such as the tradies, the nurses, the teachers—you name it.

The average Australian just wanted to be aspirational. Labor and the Australian Greens are putting a stake through the heart of aspiration. At a time when Australia should be encouraging investment, Labor has chosen a deliberate path and is punishing it. At a time when Australia should be encouraging aspiration, Labor is attacking it. At a time when Australia should be encouraging people to build wealth and create jobs, Labor is making it harder. That is why these bills are so dangerous. They don't simply affect today's investors; they affect tomorrow's investors.