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

A budget of broken promises, an ambush on aspiration and an assault on Australians' standard of living—this is what we had from the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and his budget last night. That budget statement foretold a future of new and higher taxes, surging inflation, declining real wages, higher debt and, all up, a fundamental demolition of the Australian dream. This is a budget that will not only make Australians worse off; it destroys their dreams of ever getting ahead. Previous generations have been able to use our tax system to save, invest and get ahead—people like the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and many of his colleagues. But, after this budget, Australians will have amongst the highest tax rate on investment anywhere in the world. This Labor budget is increasing the tax on every class of investment—on housing, on shares, on ETFs, on managed funds, on crypto, on small business and on start-ups. If you're a young Australian and you've just started work or maybe you're working part time, and you've been buying shares or putting money in an ETF as a way to save, when it comes time to sell them, you are going to be paying more tax on their sale—a minimum of 30 per cent—than you do on your wages. How does that encourage savings and investment? How does that promote aspiration? How does that give young Australians the hope for a better future? If you've got an idea for a small business or a start-up, it's even worse. The tax outlook that you will face there is nothing short of punitive. Rather than helping young people get ahead and providing them with the opportunities that their parents enjoyed, what this budget does is pull the ladder up. It relegates younger people to a future of wage servitude.

Not only does this budget destroy the Australian dream, hacking away at the hopes of young people for a better future; it will leave Australians worse off in the here and now. This is the future we are facing: higher taxes—$77 billion in new taxes over the next decade and income tax receipts growing by another $27 billion over the next year, accounting for the highest share of tax receipts on record. Higher inflation—the budget papers confirm that government spending will be growing at a real rate, at twice the rate of the economy. Government spending, already at a 40-year high outside the pandemic, will continue to grow. All that extra spending will add to inflationary pressures, making further interest rate rises—we've already had 15 under this government—almost inevitable. Real wages—continuing to fall. Real wages, which are already lower than they were four years ago, when this Labor government came to office, are set to shrink another two per cent over the next year on the Treasury papers. Higher debt—government debt is set to hit $1 trillion this financial year and then set to hit $1.25 trillion, $1¼ trillion dollars, in the next four years. Interest on this debt alone is now the fastest-growing item in government spending.

We hear from this government—and we keep hearing—that this budget is going to help younger Australians. But how does saddling them with more debt help younger Australians? How does higher inflation and falling real wages help younger Australians? How do higher interest rates help younger Australians? How do higher taxes on investment, the very pathway their parents used to get ahead, help younger Australians? Where is the intergenerational equity in all of this? Saddling young people with the debt from out-of-control government spending is not intergenerational equity; it's intergenerational larceny. Denying younger people the investment opportunities afforded to older Australians is not intergenerational equity; it's intergenerational theft. Condemning younger people to stagnant real wages, flatlining an economy, is not intergenerational equity; it's an abdication of leadership. This is a budget of broken promises, yes, and that alone condemns it, but it is also a budget of broken dreams, and that is its cruellest feature.

Senate adjourned at 19:53