Jessica Collins (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

Wasn't it very interesting today, hearing from the Labor government about exactly what we're going to see tonight? And it wasn't us; it was them, with their talking points that were leaked today. Broken promises are what you're going to hear tonight in this budget. Higher taxes are what you're going to hear about tonight in this budget. They will tell you that they are there to help struggling families, but all they're going to do is cover up their lies.

Let's just talk through a few of these little talking points that they've prepared about the broken promises—the excuses, ladies and gentlemen. They said, 'We have focused on housing supply, but it has become increasingly clear that we need to use every lever we can to get Australians into homes, to meet our 1.2 million new homes target.' Well, we know they are 200,000 homes below their target, and we know they're going to introduce a housing tax tonight. So you tell me how they plan to increase supply, when they're just going to put more taxes on our houses.

We also heard today from the government that debt is lower under the Labor government, while we are at $1 trillion and are only heading up, by $50,000 every minute. They talk about intergenerational equity, but $50,000 every minute, and guess who pays that bill: Australians, and our children. They don't care about that. This is a desperate government that is addicted to spending. And when they run out of money they come after yours, and you will see that tonight, but they will cover it up. We asked today: how will this government use higher taxes to increase supply? They've lost control of the borders. They've lost control of immigration. They've lost control of the budget. Yet their answer, for all those hundreds of thousands of people moving to Australia, is to put a housing tax on.

Last year the Prime Minister stood before the Australian people and said, 'The only tax policy we are implementing is the one we took to the election.' Now we are hearing, as I said, in the talking points today that they've shared around with their colleagues that they will use every lever. And they will be slugging Australians with higher taxes. We heard from the Treasurer that this will do nothing for supply. But they have broken the contract with the Australian people. They said changes to negative gearing were off the table. They broke that contract. The Prime Minister said, 'I rule out any changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.' He broke that contract with the Australian people.

How do you think the RBA—Governor Michele Bullock—is going to feel about the budget handed down tonight? Her job will be significantly harder. She has said that giving households more money makes it harder to dampen demand. That means that more money for households handed out through the budget is going to push up inflation. Now, we heard from government today that the— (Time expired)

Charlotte Walker (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a government that is committed to looking after our future generations. That has been evident in the work we have been doing so far. The opposition loves a good old scare campaign before they've even seen the facts. The opposition has been consistent in opposing our housing measures, but now they're all concerned about housing. Will the Real Slim Shady please stand up!

The budget will be unveiled tonight, and details will come in due course. This will be a big reform budget. This will be a responsible budget. But we need to acknowledge the impact that the situation in the Middle East has had on our nation. We need to continue to help Australians with the cost of living. That is why we are looking at all levers available. That is the responsibility of our government. We have always been up-front that we are looking into ways to make our tax system fairer and simpler and to ensure that it works in the interests of all Australians, businesses and future generations. This is a budget that will look after workers, first home buyers and small businesses. Responsibility is at the core of this budget. It's about making our economy more productive. That's why our budget will include $63.8 billion in savings and reprioritisation. That will bring it to a total of $177.9 billion since we were elected in 2022.

Our government is committed to doing the hard things, to making tough calls, to doing what is right and looking after our future generations. That starts with housing. For too long, it has been hard for young people to break into the housing market and get their foot in the door. That is why we are looking at all levers available. This budget will restore ambition for all Australians, and especially for younger people, in the area of home ownership. For too long, young people have been locked out of the housing market. This budget is about tackling this. Getting first home buyers into homes is enabled by making our tax system fairer. For too long this has been a systemic barrier to entering the housing market.

Good economic management is not about chasing headlines. It's about making responsible decisions that help people feel secure about their future. The opposition seems to be having a hard time conceptualising the difficulties that the situation in the Middle East is presenting to the world, including Australia. The Albanese Labor government has been working tirelessly to ensure our oil supply chains remain strong and resilient. I find it interesting that petrol prices are no longer dominating the headlines, thanks in large part to the Labor government's efforts. There hasn't been a peep from the coalition on this topic.

But the conflict in the Middle East doesn't just impact our oil and fuel supplies; it affects the global financial order as well. Nearly every country in the world is grappling with these ramifications, with inflation rising in basically every OECD country. Michele Bullock of the RBA said:

Australians are poorer because of this shock to oil prices and energy prices …

That's what this has done—this war on the other side of the world. That is the reality of the situation we all find ourselves in, and the Albanese Labor government is taking considered, measured steps to respond appropriately. We have invested more than $10 billion in the Australian fuel security and resilience package. We have brought forward $6.15 billion in capital for businesses, which we know have been doing so hard during this fuel crisis. We have halved the fuel excise for three months. These measures are helping Australians through this challenging time, and we'll be announcing more forward-thinking agendas this evening through the budget.

Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Goodness me! That's going to take me a moment to recover. In any event, what are we talking about? We are rising to talk about all things to do with the budget, apart from anything else, and that was a nice interlude. I was taken earlier on, and I think Senator Collins referred to it—it would take a special type of hubris in this place to walk back from a statement as far as this Prime Minister has. It's worth reading out again, because an extraordinary statement was made this time last year by this Prime Minister. Did I say 'president'? Prime Minister, I meant. He acts like the President. He said, 'The only tax policy that we are implementing is the one we took to the election.'

When you think about it, the question is whether you believed that when you were saying it or whether it's more of the talking points you read out loud. We know that—it's very clear now, even though we're told that we haven't seen the budget yet. Yes, we have. We've seen bits of it. There it is. There are bits of it there. The font is excellent, by the way—whoever has done that. It's almost like a stigmatism.

This is actually more than simply just what is looming to be a disgracefully irresponsible budget. I think we are on the cusp now of a generational shift in this country. The political party on the other side of the chamber has now held the reins on this economy for four years. They spent the better part of the first three blaming us. In fact, even today in question time, Senator Ayres skilfully negotiated through the wires—he is very articulate—in a final way to somehow link it back to us three to four years later. But this Australian economy is cratering under this government, under its reckless spending, under the pretence of inflation, which is now predicted to reach something like seven per cent at the end of the year. I suspect that's probably under. If you went to the real inflation rate at the moment, it would be more like 10 per cent by the end of the year.

I was reminded of the words of an actually good prime minister. Margaret Thatcher once famously said:

Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money.

We're living that tonight. We're going to see it. We're going to see it play out in real time. Tonight this government is no longer spending money it doesn't have; it's coming after yours. It's going to come after yours and that of your children.

This economy is not sinking anymore; it's in total freefall. You can see it through every aspect of the economy. Construction costs are rising. Productivity has stalled. A 30-year-old now has seen something like 0.7 per cent productivity over the course of his or her working life. Unemployment forecasts are up. In fact, we have had zero productivity growth since this government came to power. It's trying to sell this as a fair budget, but fair to who? Who is this fair to? It's not fair to the next generation. Ultimately, this government tonight is going to spend money trying to take it from the next generation and then lumber them with an ever-increasing debt. By some measures of economic complexity, we're now ranking below Botswana and Zambia. We're an economy now almost entirely dependent on commodities—which we constantly are hearing demonised in this place—on housing and on basic conspicuous consumption. That's not an economy; it's a banana republic. That's where we're up to. This is going to do nothing to alleviate that. This government has allowed Australia to borrow, spend and import its way into a corner, and they have no plan to get us out of it. (Time expired)

Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate the motion that's before this chamber at the moment. The Albanese government makes no apologies for using every single tool at its disposal to improve the lives of very hardworking men and women of this country and making sure that their families can also prosper. What we do know is that, predominantly, many young Australians are doing the right thing. They are gaining skills. They're undertaking further education. They are working bloody hard. Yet we know that they also face a monumental challenge when it comes to saving for a deposit to buy their own home. In response to this significant national challenge, those opposite, unfortunately, have done absolutely nothing in this place since we've come to government. They have simply voted against every single measure that this government has proposed that would help increase housing supply. At the moment, we have a housing supply issue and we need to drive up construction of homes in order to drop the price of housing and have many more homes available for people to buy. It is just pure economics: demand and supply are what is causing a lot of issues when it comes to housing prices right now.

Those opposite also oppose the direct construction of new homes when it comes to the Housing Australia Future Fund. They even oppose cheaper deposits for Australians trying to purchase their first home. Now, we know that housing supply is also just one side of the equation, so of course the government is trying to use every single tool at its disposal to help address what is one of the biggest issues facing Australians. Without commenting on the budget, because, quite frankly, I have to wait, like many of us, until 7.30, when the Treasurer delivers his budget speech tonight in the other place, but what I will say about the budget is that the Labor government makes no apologies for and does not shy away from any reforms boldly made in the traditional Labor way. We want to make sure that working people are looked after and we want to help working people and their families prosper and share in that prosperity like every single Australian should in this place. When circumstances change, as we are seeing right around the world at the moment—when crises emerge, our government, whoever is in the seat, must make whatever change is necessary to protect our standard of living and the way that we live. This is a great country, and we need to protect it.

Unfortunately, those opposite take a very different approach. Despite cost-of-living pressures, housing unaffordability and global instability, they remain committed to the same tired policies—or should I say maybe no policies at all—and oppose every sensible measure put forward by this government. That's why the Australian people are fed up. They have sent a very clear message—a message they should have learnt last year and they should have learnt over the weekend. The coalition now have been reduced to 43 seats in the House of Representatives. That is why over the weekend the people of Farrer—I acknowledge the shirt that was worn by one of our fellow senators who is in the chamber at the moment, but it is a message that the Australian people have sent clearly to the Liberals and the Nationals with a primary of just 12 per cent for the Liberal Party and the Nationals getting just under 10 per cent. That's around 22 per cent. If you look around the room, I bet you there are eight senators right now in the coalition who are very nervous because they're No. 2 on their ticket. Quite frankly, they won't be returned should there be a general election here— (Time expired)

Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We heard from those opposite today that tonight's budget is going to do all it can to help Australians with the cost of living, but what has the government been doing for these past four years? We have inflation at a record high—4.6 per cent and accelerating. How is high inflation helping Australians with the cost of living? We have Australians now paying $2,200 a year more on average in groceries for the average Australian household because the price of groceries has gone up about 15 per cent since this government came to office. We've got Australian households paying $1,800 more a year on average in power bills since this government came to office. How is high inflation helping Australians with the cost of living? We have now had, under this government, 15 interest rate rises. That's a cumulative increase of four percentage points. If you're an average mortgage holder, you're now paying $30,000 extra a year in interest, $2,500 a month. How are high interest rates helping Australians with the cost of living?

Since this government came to office, income tax receipts have grown by $83 billion. That is about $6,000 per taxpayer. Through bracket creep, the government is taking $6,000 more from every taxpayer in growing income taxes. How are higher taxes helping Australians with the cost of living? We've had government debt grow by $140 billion under this government's watch. Government debt today is almost $1 trillion. That's costing the average Australian $1,000 a year in interest repayments. How are extra interest repayments on government debt and government borrowing helping Australians with the cost of living? In the Australian economy we have real wages lower than they were in June 2022. How are lower real wages helping Australians with the cost of living?

That is this government's record through four budgets as we approach a fifth budget tonight. That Australians' cost of living has steadily deteriorated under their watch. In fact, if you look at the OECD measure, real household disposal income is down about seven per cent in Australia since mid-2022. In the rest of the OECD and other advanced economies, it has increased. We had the Reserve Bank of Australia say just last week that they do not see inflation returning to the target band until the end of 2027, that they do not envisage real wages starting to grow again until the middle of 2027, that they envisage at least another four interest rate rises. This was in the modelling that accompanied their decision to yet again increase interest rates.

This is Labor's economic plan in action. We have had four years of deteriorating living standards. We've had four years of Australians paying higher interest rates, paying more taxes, paying more for groceries, for fuel and for electricity, and seeing their living standards steadily fall backwards, and the Reserve Bank expects that to continue until at least for another 18 months. We have heard from those opposite—and I'm sure we'll hear it a lot tonight—that the war in the Middle East is causing this problem in Australia. Well, in Australia, the Reserve Bank has increased interest rates for the past three consecutive months. Every other central bank has kept interest rates on hold for the past three consecutive months. Why is that? Why are other economies able to absorb the shock of the Middle East oil price rise but Australia is not? It's because, as the Reserve Bank Governor said just last week, inflation in Australia was already out of control. The government did not use good economic times to repair our balance sheet or to take pressure off monetary policy, and as a result Australians are once again going to pay the price.

Question agreed to.