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

I note that the Treasurer is not here. I also note that the minister for industry has not been here this week. It seems that it wasn't just last night that we saw the New South Welshman take out the Queenslander with a high shot. We saw that earlier this week when the industry minister took out the Treasurer with a high shot. He has disappeared—explaining to the Treasurer that he got his budget wrong. It's true that the minister for industry is the Joseph Suaalii of the parliament and the Treasurer seems to be the Reece Walsh.

But the fact of the matter is that this Treasurer had an opportunity to hand down a budget just a couple of weeks ago that was going to set Australia back on track, get back to basics and get things right, but what we saw was a budget that was the third flop from this Treasurer. It was his third budget, his third failure, his third flop, as he handed down a budget which was absolutely the wrong budget for the times. It was panned by economists across the board. As a result, it sank without a trace within about 36 hours.

By the weekend, no-one was talking about the Treasurer's budget because it was meaningless and it wasn't actually dealing with the issues. They were talking about the budget-in-reply speech, because it actually dealt with the issues that Australians are facing: re-establishing the dream of homeownership, making sure that we're putting downward pressure on inflation and setting us up for prosperity over the longer term.

Of course, there were three tests for this budget. The first was about restoring our standard of living back to where it was before Labor came to power. The truth is that Australians are poorer under Labor—two years of Labor and they're poorer. That is an undeniable fact. Indeed, we saw it in the national accounts just yesterday, where Australians' real disposable income per person—that's their standard of living—which was translated into the common-sense numbers that we saw yesterday, has collapsed by eight per cent under Labor. That means they're eight per cent poorer. That's what happens with a Labor government. The numbers yesterday were stunning. But they only told us what we know and what we see every single day when we're out and about in our electorates all around Australia. We see the pain that Australians are feeling at the food banks and the mortgage belt areas. When we go to sporting matches, we see and talk to Australians who are suffering under a Labor government that doesn't understand basic economics.

The second test was to set us up for prosperity over the longer term, to restore not just our standard of living but our way of life, which includes the dream of homeownership, which for so many young Australians is becoming out of reach under this government. The third thing that they needed to do was restore the fiscal disciplines that had been in place since the 1990s. But this Treasurer knows better! He's remaking capitalism. I don't think Australians think he's remaking it very well, but he's certainly remaking capitalism as he brings down a budget with billions of dollars of corporate welfare. Billions for billionaires is what we see in this budget. He's fond of saying—he's now admitting—that there's $315 billion of extra spending in this budget. Some of it we support, but there's much of it we don't. We've opposed $45 billion through the parliament. The corporate welfare that he is handing out to his mates is not something we can possibly support. There are many measures, like $600,000 for a speechwriter for the Minister for the NDIS. I tell you what—I'm not sure you're getting value for money with that, given the speeches we've heard from the Minister for the NDIS over the last little while. The truth is that that is how they're spending hard-earned taxpayers money. Taxpayers are suffering under this government like they haven't in anyone's lifetime who is in Australia today.

My question for the minister, who is a no-show, and the assistant minister, who's on his way out as well, is: why are Australians paying the price for this government's complete economic incompetence?

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