Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

That's right. It's a nice round number of zero, as the member for Casey points out—not once. Of course, he's had many opportunities, through the questioning of the opposition throughout all of the question times we've had over—what has it been now?—10 months of this term of government. Did the Prime Minister promise cheaper mortgages? Yes, of course he did. Did the Prime Minister deliver cheaper mortgages? No, he hasn't to date. Did the Prime Minister promise lower inflation? In fact he did. Has he delivered lower inflation? No, of course; inflation has only gone up. Did the Prime Minister promise to lower the cost of living? Yes, he did, and, unfortunately, the cost of living is going higher every day and is a major concern of my constituents when I go door-to-door in my electorate of Bowman.

The Prime Minister promised to increase real wages, but unfortunately the statistics show that real wages have been going down. And super? They promised they wouldn't touch it. The PM of course said that he wouldn't touch it, and here we are this week and last week with announcements being made about changing the super. This is where this bill comes in. Interestingly, the Prime Minister promised that he wouldn't be touching franking credits, but here we are with this bill, only a few short years since the then Labor opposition spectacularly lost an election over this and many other issues.

Keeping promises is not something that this Prime Minister cares much about. After all, the Labor Party believes that we're all worker bees in a hive and our money is just one big honey pot to be dipped into whenever they feel like it simply to further the ambitions and objectives of this Labor government. This is a government whose principal currency is false platitudes. We see it every day. For reasons of time, I won't even come close to naming all the instances where this government has failed to walk the walk despite how often they talk the talk. For a government elected on a mantra of improving the lives of everyday working Australians and on integrity, they are consistently failing to live up to their word.

It is worthwhile to go through the commitments the government made before the election regarding this bill. On 1 January 2021, the now Prime Minister stated, 'We will not be taking any changes to franking credits to the next election.' On 30 March 2021, the now Prime Minister stated, 'We won't have any changes to franking credits and negative gearing. We won't be taking those policies to the next election.' Well, they certainly didn't take it to the next election, but now they're elected it's suddenly right back on the agenda. On 4 March 2022, also on franking credits, the now Prime Minister stated, 'We're not touching them.' The Prime Minister was absolutely consistent before the election. It's only since the election and since he became Prime Minister that he has changed his tune. On 15 December 2021, the now Prime Minister stated, 'We've made it clear that, on areas like franking credits and negative gearing, we won't be taking these policies to the next election.'

If the Prime Minister wasn't clear enough, then what about the Treasurer? What did the Treasurer say before the election, before he was Treasurer? On 17 January 2022, as Shadow Treasurer, he stated, 'We won't be doing franking credits. I couldn't be clearer.' It seems that even this wasn't clear enough for the Treasurer, for the Prime Minister or for this Labor government because, less than 10 months on, this is precisely what this bill is aiming to do.

My question is: what else are they aiming to do? This is, of course, the thin edge of the wedge. I think we're going to see even lower thresholds for their extra taxes on superannuation. I think we're going to see CGT changes; of course, the Treasurer—

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