Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What I find interesting is this is consideration in detail. I quite like that the assistant Treasurer. We got elected together in 2010, so we have some bon ami as far as that goes. But two government speakers—this is consideration in detail—have made statements for five minutes and actually not asked a single question about what is in the budget and how it is going to benefit people. That is because there is very little in the budget that benefits Australian people. The previous speaker wants me to quote from the budget papers. I will happily oblige the member. On page 56 of budget statement No. 2, it says, 'Financial markets and market economists now expect the cash rate to remain at 3.85 per cent until early 2024.' Well, that has gone up in dust, hasn't it? We are now 4.1. Does that mean that everything else in the budget is now irrelevant?

As we stand here and listen to those opposite, they have a budget built on a foundation set by the work of successive coalition governments. All we have seen in this budget are higher taxes and more expenditure, putting pressure on inflation and making things worse for the Australian people. They have failed to deal with pressures in many areas in the economy—failed outright. Energy prices are now higher than when they came into government. Interest rates are now higher than when they came into government. And we've seen them raise taxes, which they said they wouldn't do. The member for Groom outlined a couple—the truckies tax and the tax on agriculture, through the quarantine levy. But also we've seen changes to franking credits, something else those opposite said, during the election campaign, they wouldn't do. We've seen the average income tax take go up as inflation has borne down on Australians, with bracket creep. This budget and the government's 12 months in office are full of broken promises, and they continue.

The Prime Minister said on 4 March 2022, in relation to franking credits, that Labor was 'not touching them'. A week later, on ABC radio, he said, 'We won't have any changes to the franking credits regime.' The Treasurer—who, as has been noted earlier, is not here for consideration in detail—said:

… we won't be doing franking credits … I couldn't be clearer than that.

However, we've seen changes to franking credits since they came to government, in direct opposition to what they said. Why has the Treasurer attacked Australians with these changes to franking credits, double-dipping and a tax grab on retirees and investors? A second question is: are there any further plans of this government to further tax retirees and their franking credits?

But it's not only franking credits; it's also superannuation, where we have seen a change to the tax treatment of super for the higher balances. To paraphrase a comment from the Assistant Treasurer, his view is that superannuation is a honey pot. Well, it's not a honey pot for the government; it's something for Australians to have for their retirement. The government needs to understand that, with this tax hike they have promised—which is not indexed, by the way—if you do some longer-term analysis of what people will accumulate in their superannuation over the years to come, there are going to be a far wider range of people impacted by these changes than currently proposed. But on this side of the chamber we'll continue to back superannuation and a lower tax environment for all Australians. In relation to super more generally, we've seen, as I said, the interest rates go up, so what is the government going to do to reduce interest rates and reduce the pressure on Australian households? (Time expired)

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