Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like most hardworking Australians, many of us work very hard to make sure our kids have a great future. My mother did that, and I am incredibly proud of what she did for our family and the contribution she made to the Geelong community.

There's one thing for certain with this dishevelled and unprincipled opposition—lies and taxes directed at the most vulnerable Australians. There was no bigger lie than Labor's 'Mediscare' campaign, a big fat lie directed at senior Australians to scare them and to make them fear for their future. This was the most disgraceful lie—a deliberate, deceptive, disgraceful campaign. Australians, I'm very pleased to see, will be protected from this deliberately deceptive behaviour because of the legislation that we have now passed.

And now what are we seeing from Labor? We're seeing a plan to deliver more than $200 billion of taxes. Australians don't need campaign videos to know what this mob is all about. The biggest slug is on retirees—$5 billion a year—including some pensioners, and self-funded retirees, many of whom are sitting just above the pension threshold. Nine hundred thousand of the most vulnerable Australians are under attack by Labor. What hypocrites are members opposite! They're quite happy to provide the tax deduction from franked dividends to high-income earners but, if you are a low-income earner and you rely on the cash refund from the ATO to pay bills and to put food on the table, Labor says, 'Tough; don't worry about it!' Labor know they have huge problems with this policy. They know that this policy, more than any other, attacks the most vulnerable of Australians. It's a $57 billion tax slug over 10 years—but, of course, as we know, Labor can't even get their costings right.

Aspiration is not about having your life savings ripped out from under you, which is what Labor is all about. Consider what we've seen from Labor's plan to attack businesses. Let's not forget that a few years ago Labor supported lower company tax rates. The Leader of the Opposition and others argued that this was good for business and good for jobs and investment. Now, in an unprincipled reversal of that position, we have seen Labor declare a war on business—and they were the Leader of the Opposition's very own words. This pathetic and weak Labor Party is so unprincipled that it can't stand up for Australia's coal workers and it's now planning to drive jobs offshore by this terrible policy, including the $70 billion it is penalising Australians with. (Time expired)

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