Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Could this be the worst economic management of the Australian economy in history? It has to be close. Let's start with forecasting. One of the most important jobs that the parliament has is to decide on the direction we want to take the country, figure out how to get there and tell everyone what it's going to cost them. It is of vital importance to the country that we get those costings right. After all, it is the Australian people that pay for the decisions of the government.

What has Labor's record looked like since they've come to government? They've missed their budget forecast in five out of seven budget releases, with the last four adding an average of $30 billion to net spending. These are historic misses. Labor chronically understate their outrageous spending, only admitting the true cost when they can no longer hide. The 2025-26 MYEFO includes the single largest adjustment in history—$47.8 billion in the space of six months. That sort of blowout would get anyone in the real world sacked on the spot. There would be investigations, investors would lose faith, share prices would tank, auditors would be sacked and regulators would get involved.

How can this government defend this negligence to the Australian people? They are spending like drunken sailors, with no signs of slowing down. But is that additional spending going to those who are doing it tough? No. Their policy blowouts are going to fund tax cuts for luxury items. Look at the government's FBT tax break on electric vehicles. It is a tax break for some of the wealthiest Australians, which was forecast to cost the government a mere $90 million. Instead, it has cost 15 times that, clocking in at $1.35 billion.

Or how about the home battery scheme? They've had to raise it from an initial $2.3 billion to $7.3 billion. That's an additional $5 billion of taxpayer money exclusively to those who can afford a home and then can afford the home batteries. It's too bad if you're struggling to pay the bills with Labor's rocketing energy prices and you don't have a spare $10,000 to spend. Labor have no idea what their own policies are going to cost Australia.

At this point, they clearly do not care. It has gotten to the point where economists are doubting the forecasting abilities of the Treasury. No-one expects perfection, but understating government spending has become a habit. How do we expect the RBA to make timely, informed decisions when each release of the government financials contains massive blowouts?

Because of Labor's recklessness, Australians are heading into a cycle of fresh rate hikes. The rest of the developed world is heading for rate cuts. Enough of Labor's rhetoric around inflation being a global issue. It is now clear that this is a Labor government issue.

Day-to-day government spending is over 23 per cent of GDP, up from 19 per cent only a decade ago. That is a 21 per cent increase in the cost of government. And what do Australian people have to show for it? A housing crisis, a cost-of-living crisis and more rate rises. What a disaster!

Their forecasting is a basket case. What about debt? We're hearing the outrageous claims that debt is $177 billion lower than forecast—but which forecast? The 2022 pre-election fiscal outlook, during the doom and gloom of the COVID years. The reality is that they have saved nothing. They're using an outrageous comparison year to trick the Australian people into believing they have managed the economy.

The reality is that Australia's on track to hit $1 trillion in debt, with a record debt-to-GDP ratio outside of the COVID years. By the 2028-29 year, Australia is forecast to hit its maximum debt limit of $1.2 trillion and will need to either stop issuing debt or raise the debt ceiling.

There is no handbrake with Labor. They will burn the economy to the ground, crush the future of Australians and hand it over to another government to clean up the mess, again—all of this from a government that has slugged Australia with record total taxes in every consecutive year of government. In the last six months, they have upgraded the estimates of tax taken through individual and company tax by $6.1 billion for the 2025-26 year and $10.7 billion over the next two years. That's on top of already record taxation. That's money out of the pockets of hardworking Australians. Labor's only budget repair measure is bracket creep. What an outrageous way to fix their mess!

There is a way out of this economic ruin. There is a party that will make the hard decisions and get Australia back on track, and that party is One Nation.