Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Henderson has submitted a proposal, under standing order 75, today. It has been circulated and is shown on the Dynamic Red:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

"The Albanese Government's Budget is full of broken promises, higher taxes, more debt, lower living standards and fewer homes for Australians, with Labor's economic mismanagement locking the nation into a decade of deficits that every Australian will be forced to pay for."

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Digital Safety) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a budget full of broken promises—higher taxes, more debt, lower living standards and fewer homes for Australians. Because Labor can't manage money, we're facing a decade of deficits worth $150 billion, and every Australian will be forced to foot the bill. Australians will pay an extra $50 billion in taxes over the next four years. This includes an extra $15 billion in personal income taxes and billions more from new taxes on houses, small businesses, farms and shares as a result of capital gains tax and negative gearing broken promises.

This budget confirms Labor's housing tax will make the housing situation worse, reducing the supply of homes by 35,000 and increasing rents. This makes it harder for Australians to save for the future and harder for small businesses to grow and invest. These are taxes on aspiration and Australians who work hard to get ahead. Real wages are down three per cent, and Australians have experienced the steepest fall in living standards of any developed country. Unfortunately, there is more price pain on the way for Australians.

Even before the war, Australia's inflation was higher than any major advanced economy. Now inflation is set to reach five per cent this year. Families will be forced to pay more for everyday essentials like fuel and groceries, and there will be more upward pressure on interest rates. Disgracefully, Labor will bring two million migrants into Australia in its first two terms, including 90,000 more than targeted over the next two years. This will make housing less affordable and put more pressure on hospitals, schools and roads.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Treasurer, Mr Chalmers, have gone on a public servant hiring spree with nothing to show for it. When Labor was elected there were 172,000 bureaucrats; now there are 217,000. Under Labor, annual interest repayments have more than doubled and will reach more than $42 billion by the end of the decade.

Labor's budget of broken promises—sickening broken promises—shows $18 billion in new net zero spending, plus money to establish a massive new green bureaucracy—the Environmental Protection Authority, staffed by 700 bureaucrats. This is a job-killing, project-cancelling agency. Labor is giving a capital gains tax cut to foreign investors in renewable energy while raising capital gains tax on young Australians trying to get ahead. A massive $750 million cut for veterans includes a $340 million-a-year cut on allied health services. In the middle of a skills crisis this budget rips out $266 million from Australian apprentices at a time when there are 130,000 fewer apprentices and trainees then when Labor was elected. Labor is cutting Defence spending next year, at a time when Australia faces its most dangerous strategic circumstances since World War II.

On Thursday night Angus Taylor will deliver our budget-in-reply and outline the coalition's plan for a stronger economy and a better Australia. This will be a plan to restore Australia's standard of living and protect our way of life by backing Australians who have a go. The coalition will fight tooth and nail against Labor's new taxes and reckless spending—against Labor's reckless spending which is driving up interest rates, which is driving up inflation and which is making all Australians poorer. This is a budget which has betrayed every single Australian.

Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to respond to the coalition's MPI about last night's budget that delivered more tax cuts for Australian workers, delivered a fair go for Australians who want to get into a home of their own and strengthened the future of Medicare. In the motion, Senator Henderson talks about broken promises. That's pretty brave from the Liberal Party, so let's go there. This is the same Liberal Party of Tony Abbott, who went to an election and promised no cuts to health, no cuts to education and no changes to the ABC, and then did exactly that. It's the same Liberal Party of Malcolm Turnbull, who promised stable leadership on climate change and delivered nothing but chaos that took this nation backwards. It's the same Liberal Party of Scott Morrison, a prime minister who secretly swore himself into five ministries—a government so full of trust and honesty that the Prime Minister didn't even trust his own ministers to do their jobs.

Senator Henderson wants to talk about higher taxes for everyday Australians—again, crazy brave of her, given her party went to the last election promising higher taxes for working Australians. That was your policy at the last election. If you want to talk about higher tax policies, we have the receipts for what you took to the last election.

Last night's budget was about delivering a tax system that is fairer for working Australians. It is about ensuring that everyday Australians can get ahead for their work and for their effort. It is about helping more Australians get ahead and get a foot in the housing market. This budget isn't about making the easy decision to do nothing. Labor is making decisions to build an economy that delivers greater productivity, an economy that rewards workers and an economy that encourages investment in new housing supply, to deliver more homes for more Australians.

Another claim from Senator Henderson is about living standards. This is coming from the same Liberal Party that went to the election proposing higher taxes for working Australians, the same Liberal Party that had wages stagnating for a decade, the same party that saw productivity stall in this nation and the same party that saw living standards materially go backwards. Bulk-billing rates were practically in freefall under the Liberal Party. They made it more expensive to see a doctor and more difficult to find a bulk-billing doctor in this country.

But most extraordinary is Senator Henderson's claim about fewer homes for Australians. The very heart of this budget is about helping more Australians get into a home of their own—the same Australians who are struggling with rents and the rising cost of living while trying to save a deposit to get into a home. They are the very ordinary Australians we are fighting for in this budget. It is only Labor that is brave enough to take the decision to unlock housing supply and address the structural fairness issues in the housing market.

We have delivered almost a thousand social and affordable homes in my home state of Queensland. We've delivered 62 infrastructure projects to support new housing in Queensland. We've delivered more than 330 safe places across 18 crisis and transitional housing projects in Queensland. We've delivered Commonwealth rent assistance to more than 348,000 Queenslanders. And more than 34,000 Queenslanders have bought their first home thanks to Labor's first home deposit of five per cent. That's 34,000 Queenslanders that Senator Henderson and the Liberal Party would prefer were not in a home of their own. The Liberal Party would prefer that those 34,000 Queenslanders were locked out of the housing market. They would dismantle Labor's five per cent deposit scheme, given half a chance, and would force young Australians to pay mortgage lenders insurance of $20,000, $30,000 and up to $40,000. They would rather see those young Australians saddled with a 20 per cent deposit that meant they would never get a foot in the housing market.

I challenge Senator Henderson and some of her Liberal colleagues from Queensland to go out and doorknock those 34,000 Queenslanders that got into a home thanks to this Labor government's five per cent deposit scheme. You tell them that you don't believe that they deserve to be in that home, that they don't deserve a five per cent deposit—that you do not support the very scheme that they accessed to get into a home. I encourage you to go out in Queensland and tell those 34,000 Queenslanders that you do not support their housing deposit.

Sean Bell (NSW, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This budget is another part of a big Labor lie. Labor told you, the Australians watching at home, that electricity prices would come down. Labor told you that the Medicare card would be all you need to see a GP for free. They told you 50 times that they would not touch negative gearing and they would not touch capital gains tax, and now they are telling you those broken promises will somehow help young people buy a home and live a fairer life. That is the big lie at the heart of this budget. They are asking Australians to believe two impossible things at once: making investment harder for somehow make housing easier, and Labor can break a clear promise and still be trusted. They cannot be trusted. This is a budget that lies and pretends it doesn't tax workers, but it does. A nurse with a rental property is a worker. She's not a robber baron. A tradie putting money into shares is a worker. They are not the enemy. The small-business owner building an asset for retirement is a worker, not a loophole to be closed. What we are looking at is pure class warfare dressed up, plain and simple.

These workers are not the problem with Australia; they are its backbone. But, under Labor, aspiration and success have become something to punish and tax. What is the message to a young couple trying to save and invest? The message is, 'Don't bother.' What is the message to a young tradie hoping to buy a unit and one day turn it into an investment for his future? The message is: 'Don't get ahead of yourself, mate. That's not fair.' One Nation disagrees. We believe in aspiration. We believe Australians should be rewarded for work, saving, investment and risk. We believe young Australians need a real, fair path to ownership and wealth, not a government that pulls up the property ladder and then calls it justice.

Is it fairness to saddle future generations with a trillion-dollar debt and a net zero obsession that costs $100 billion a year and will not change the weather one bit? No, that is not fairness. Is it fairness to allow mass migration to flood the housing market and compete with young people for rental properties and homes? No, that is not fairness. One Nation believes that Australians deserve a government that keeps its word, and what we have over there is a government that does not keep its word. They break promises. They cannot be trusted. This budget is a broken promise, a tax grab and a direct attack on aspiration—aspiration at the very heart of the values that make us Australians.

The next time the Labor government makes a promise, tells you the electricity price will come down or holds up a Medicare card and says that's all you need, remember: this is a government that breaks its word. (Time expired)

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

Labor senators from Western Australia often come to this chamber proud of the fact that, in the 2022 and 2025 federal elections, Western Australians endorsed Labor. The challenge for WA senators from the Labor Party today is to explain why it was necessary last night for the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and Jim Chalmers, the Treasurer, to turn their backs on WA voters? Why was it necessary for Labor to break promises they gave to Western Australian voters? This is a budget of broken promises, higher taxes, more debt, lower living standards and fewer homes for Australians. The budget is a document that has turned its back on the desperate needs facing Western Australia and families and businesses today.

Let's remind ourselves that it was just one year ago when the Prime Minister was asked whether he would make changes to housing and other taxes. What did the Prime Minister say? He told people he that he wouldn't make changes and the proof would be in the pudding. The pudding last night was a blatant tax raid and an assault on ambition dressed up as ambitious reform, leaving all Australians worse off because this is a government that cannot manage the economy and cannot manage the economy at times of crisis.

I encourage voters to go to one book just to find the litany of lies and broken promises in last night's budget. That one book is what's called the budget strategy and outlook. At page 158, you will find revelations that actually fewer homes will be built under Labor's plan. At page 159, you will find that, under Labor's plan, rents will increase. At page 256, you will find the shocking detail that Australia's net debt levels will tip over $1 trillion, peaking at $1.2 trillion. That's an important revelation because debt is a tax on future generations. Those future generations are young people today, but they will be families and business owners into the future. Then, to demonstrate that this is in fact the highest-taxing and highest-spending government in decades, you need only to look at the historic data tables at the back of this volume. You can start at page 437. That is the reality of the situation. You can't trust Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and you can't trust Jim Chalmers.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just remind you to use, specifically for people in the other place, their correct titles.

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

The budget has cemented this Albanese Labor government's position as the highest-taxing government in our history. Last night, we saw Jim Chalmers whack Australians with an extra $50 billion in taxes over the next four years, taxes which include $15 billion in higher personal income taxes. We saw a housing tax, a small business tax and a family savings tax. On housing, the budget papers confirm it. Labor's housing taxes will reduce the supply of homes by 35,000 over the decade. They reveal that Labor's plan will push rental costs up.

On deficits and debt, they say that Labor cannot manage the economy, because we are facing a decade of deficits worth $150 billion and a net debt of $1.25 trillion. The yearly interest bill on that debt alone will hit more than $42 billion, or $80,000 every minute. The most alarming revelation, of course, is that more than $9 out of every $10 of improvement in this budget over the next five years is, in fact, due to changed economic conditions and not the blood, sweat and tears of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Labor Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. This is a budget of ruin.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Smith, I did remind you to use people's titles and you repeatedly did not. So I'll just remind senators that you should be using people's correct titles.

Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to thank Senator Henderson for another opportunity to talk about the outstanding budget delivered last night by Treasurer Chalmers and how it will continue to deliver for every single Australian. But, if you are going to stand up in this chamber and say that Australians are paying higher taxes under this government, I think that the record needs to be corrected. Broken promises, higher taxes, more debt, lower living standards and fewer homes—Senator Henderson lays this at the feet of this Labor government. The problem is that she's actually reading from her own report card. That was the combination of their nine years in government and what the coalition took to the last election.

But let's take a closer look at what was delivered last night on taxes. Every single Australian working taxpayer received a tax cut from this budget. That is 13.3 million workers. An average worker will be up to $2,816 better off every year by 2028. Over a working life, the average Australian earner will pay up to $38,977 less in tax compared with where we were sitting in 2023. So it feels as though someone's calculator must be broken on their side over there, because that doesn't equal higher taxes to me. I don't know what budget Senator Henderson was reading.

On debt, gross debt peaks lower, peaks earlier and is lower in every year for the next 11 years compared with what we inherited. The budget position is more than a quarter of a trillion dollars better than when Labor was elected in 2022. Real spending growth averages just 1.5 per cent for the eight years to June 2030. That is the lowest average growth rate in any eight-year period for almost 3½ decades. For those over there with the broken calculators, that's 35 years. If that is economic mismanagement, I'd hate to see what Senator Henderson thought about the trillion dollars of debt and nothing to show for it during their time in government. But you did get something out of that trillion dollars of debt; you did get those little 'Back in Black' mugs printed.

On living standards, real wages have grown for eight out of the nine last quarters. The fuel excise has been cut from 52.6c to 20.6c per litre. There has been a $1,000 instant tax deduction, with no receipts required, saving millions of working Australians time and money. There are 137 Medicare urgent care clinics—fully funded, free, walk-in, seven days a week, permanent. By July, four in five Australians will be within a 20-minute drive of one. That is what it looks like when a government takes cost of living seriously.

Let's talk about women. This budget is one that benefits every Australian woman. The average Australian female worker, on $68,000, will receive a combined benefit of up to $2,494 per year from 2027-28. The tax changes are expected to boost women's labour supply by 900,000 hours. And there is $182.6 million to address the weaponisation of the child support scheme, because $2 billion in child support debt is owed in this country, and 83 per cent of the people affected are women. This will be life-changing for Australian women. This government is one that sees the need and acts on it. Australia's gender equality ranking has risen from 43rd to 13th since 2022. The gender pay gap is at a historic low. That is not an accident; it is deliberate policy.

For the regional Victorians I represent, the fuel excise is absolutely valuable. They drive further, they depend on fuel more and they feel these global pressures harder. This budget delivers $14.8 billion for a fuel and fertiliser security package that directly supports farmers and regional industries. There is $781.6 million for new rounds of the Thriving Suburbs and Growing Regions programs—money that flows directly to councils and community organisations across regional Victoria. There is $1.75 billion to improve Australia's freight and rail network, critical infrastructure for agriculture and manufacturing for our regions. We've also made changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax that will mean that more Australians can get into a home sooner.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has said he wants early education and care to be his legacy, but his actions and the actions of his government are telling a completely different story. A legacy is something you build, something you fight for that ideally improves the lives of people. But this budget does no such thing for families across this country. There is no real progress on affordability or access, no meaningful move towards universal child care, and looming pay cuts for 60,000 early childhood educators in one of the country's lowest-paid industries.

After all the speeches, the glossy announcements and the self-congratulations, Labor has delivered nothing that brings Australia meaningfully closer to universal child care. They've spent months boasting about educator wage increases through the worker retention payment, a payment that expires in November. You would think this budget would at the very least guarantee those hardworking educators keep the pay rise that they originally received; instead, under Labor's watch they will face a cruel and unnecessary pay cut right before Christmas—I mean, come on. What a slap in the face to workers who have held this sector together through some of its toughest years.

Last week's announcement of an early childhood education and care commission is something the Greens have been calling for for over a year to address the childcare crisis, but when you open the budget papers there is nothing there—no funding, zero—just more consultation, another talkfest, another press release dressed as action, quite the legacy, Labor, well done. Because if Labor had the courage to take on the one per cent multinational corporations and make them pay their fair share, we could build a universal childcare system tomorrow and still have money left over—not good enough.

Leah Blyth (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night's budget made one thing very clear. This is a budget of higher taxes, more debt, lower living standards and fewer homes for Australians. After four years of this terrible Labor government, Australians are working harder, paying more and falling further behind. It feels like everyone is going backwards and that is because we are. Labor has announced more than $50 billion in higher taxes, including $15 billion in higher personal income taxes.

Labor continues to prove itself inept at economic management and has set the record as one of the highest-taxing governments in Australia's history. Labor cannot manage money. Australians are now facing a decade of deficits. Our debt is set to reach record levels under Labor, and this budget shows that debt is only going to continue to grow. The debt is climbing to $1.25 trillion, and every single Australian is going to be forced to foot the bill. Debt is a tax on future generations, and it is those future generations who will pay the ultimate cost for Labor's economic mismanagement.

It was only 20 years ago under former Prime Minister John Howard that Australia was debt free, and now, under Labor, debt has surged and will continue to surge well over a trillion dollars. The yearly interest bill on that debt will hit more than $42 billion—that is, about $80,000 every single minute in interest. That is money not spent on aged care, not spent on roads, not spent on schools and hospitals and other essential services; that is just the Australian taxpayer servicing the debt of this Labor government. Labor's debt and this debt will kill Australian aspiration for years to come. These are the businesses that our children and our children's children won't be able to start, the memories they won't make on trips overseas and the families they won't be able to afford.

Australians' living standards are falling. This budget confirms Australians are now worse off under Labor. There is no plan by this Labor government to deal with inflation; instead, the Treasurer is bucking the trend and the pleas of the RBA governor and is spending more and more money, which means inflation will only continue to get worse. Labor continue to break the commitments they made to the Australian people and Australians have been misled. This is not the budget Australians were promised. The Prime Minister went to the last election promising there would be no changes to negative gearing, saying, 'Yes, it is not that hard, for the 50th time.' They are the words of our Prime Minister when asked by a journalist whether he would change negative gearing in Australia. This is the same Prime Minister who told Australians 'my word is my bond', and last night that bond was well and truly broken.

Under Labor, our children will not be able to own their own homes. The government's budget actively works against your children's future because Labor's housing tax will reduce the supply of homes by over 35,000 over the decade while simultaneously increasing Australians' rents. Their own budget papers say this. Labor has not heard the concerns of Australians when it comes to housing because Australians know that to increase housing supply, you must reduce demand as well.

Under Labor's new budget, migration is still out of control. Their migration target is expected to blow out by another 90,000. This means Labor will bring in almost two million migrants across their first two terms in government. Where are all the houses? Where are the new hospitals? Where are the new schools? Where are the roads? Labor would have driven the country into a recession already if not for papering over the economic mismanagement with excessive and reckless immigration targets. Labor will play this budget off as a win for Australians, distracting them with a $250 sugar-hit tax refund. But Labor's $250 back on your taxes is not a gift. That is your own money that you have paid in hard earned tax being returned to you. Jim Chalmer's budget is an assault on aspiration. What's next? The family home? Your super? Labor no longer has any integrity at all, and we will continue to fight every day against Labor's agenda.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the debate has expired.