Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister a moment ago was very keen to talk about tests, but the real question here is: what was the test for the budget? We laid this out very clearly in the lead-up to the budget, and it was to build on the strong economic and budgetary position inherited by those opposite to address those challenges that are bearing down on Australians. We know that absolutely at the top of that list is the cost of living. We also know that it's absolutely essential for all Australians that over the medium to longer term we see strong economic growth and a robust economy which creates opportunities for all Australians and allows them to realise their aspirations. But on any measure, Labor failed that test last night.

Just before the election, the Prime Minister told Australians that they will be better off under a Labor government—no ambiguity, no asterisk, no footnotes. In fact, based on their numbers in the budget, by Christmas, the typical Australian family will be at least $2,000 worse off.

An opposition member: How much?

Two thousand dollars worse off by Christmas. The budget fails Australian families at exactly the time they need a clear and comprehensive plan to deal with the cost-of-living pressures they are facing.

Now, the budget confirms a number of things. Firstly, the cost of living is going up. Secondly, electricity and gas bills are going up. Electricity bills are going up by 20 per cent this year and 30 per cent next year—56 per cent over two years. Gas bills are going up by 40 per cent over two years. Thirdly, tax payments are going up. Fourthly, government spending is going up. Fifthly, employment will go down;150,000 jobs are going to be shed. Finally—there's more on the list, but this will do for now—real wages are going down in this election cycle.

An opposition member: A typical bread-and-butter Labor budget.

This was a bread-and-butter Labor budget—there's no doubt about that. It was a big spending, big taxing, traditional Labor budget that delivers everything to government and nothing to the Australian people. So much so, we know there are going to be 20,000 additional public servants. That is the contribution being made to the bread and butter of Australian households. That's not how we're going to deal with the cost-of-living crisis in this country. The budget that the Treasurer handed down last night has no credible plan to deal with those challenges that Australians are dealing with in their households.

Back in July, the Treasurer delivered a ministerial statement to this House. There was a lot of forecasting and a lot of commentary, but what he did say in that statement was that he wanted to paint a picture for the Australian people. Well, we now know what the picture is. It is a self-portrait! All this time he was painting a picture for himself—just a big oil painting of the Treasurer. And that's what we got in the budget last night. There was nothing else of substance. As the Treasurer leads the Labor Party through the desert and into this fiscal nirvana, the prime ministership is waiting for him on a mountain top, and he's getting rid of his rivals day by day—several of them going by the wayside.

That 50 per cent increase in electricity prices—how did that get into the budget papers? There are a lot of questions to answer here. But what we do know is that this was a vanity project for the Treasurer. It should have been about Australians—Australian families, Australian pensioners and hardworking Australian small businesses. They will pay the price for the self-indulgence of this Treasurer and for the lack of a coherent and comprehensive plan to get through to Christmas and deal with those cost-of-living pressures that all Australians are facing. This budget was all about the Treasurer.

There were a number of very significant broken promises in this budget. It confirms that electricity and gas prices are expected rise sharply over the next two years—56 per cent for electricity prices and maybe 40 per cent for gas prices. The promise that Labor made for a $275 electricity price reduction is gone. In fact, the Treasurer confirmed today that it's not in the budget. He misheard, but after clarification it was very clear it is not in the budget anywhere, because it has absolutely gone—like something out of George Orwell, you wipe it out of the documents! The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister Burke, said on 15 June: 'People will be seeing in their bank accounts what the change of government means.' Well, he was right. This a commitment he will keep. This is a commitment they will keep because they will be seeing in their bank accounts exactly what this government means, which is a higher cost of living—more taxes, higher electricity bills and Australians being worse off.

More broadly on cost of living, the Prime Minister said: 'Australian families know that the price and cost of everything is going up—food, petrol, housing. Everything is going up except for the wages.' It's clear that he was talking about his future government because that is exactly what we are seeing around us right now. There were other broken promises.

Those of us who were here in 2019 will remember the debate in this place and in the election campaign about franking credits. On 4 March 2022, that's this year, when asked whether or not he was going to change taxation around franking credits, on ABC Perth mornings the Prime Minister said, 'We're not touching them.' On 30 March 2021, an earlier stage, on ABC Radio AM, he said: 'We won't have any changes to the franking credit regime.' Then the Treasurer on 17 January 2022 said, 'We won't be doing franking credits.' He might have misheard. It's always possible that he misheard and who knows what 'doing' means. But he did say, 'We won't be doing franking credits.' Do you know what they brought into the budget? It is a change to taxation on franking credits. This is another broken promise.

They claim that this was a responsible budget. There's some creative accounting in what the Treasurer said last night. Let's go to the facts. How much more tax is going to be charged to Australians over the next four years in this budget versus the March budget? It's a very simple number: $142 billion of extra taxes. That's a rising rate of income tax, a 10 per cent increase in the average income tax rate paid across the economy. The only way that is going to be stopped is the stage 3 tax cuts. Those opposite can't even bear to mention them. It goes further than that. Not only are they taxing an additional $142 billion; they're spending an additional $115 billion. This is a traditional Labor budget. It is a big spending, big taxing budget. The one thing we know in this budget is that they put in a great big gap for the next budget, which is to get rid of the stage 3 tax cuts. However much they're taxing, they always want to tax more.

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