Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

When they've gone off on tangents on other issues, let me just very quickly correct some of the things that they've said that have just been bizarre. They claimed that they will lower immigration at the same time that they voted to make overseas students unlimited. Unlimited was how they voted. They claimed that they're going to put a two-year ban in place that will stop foreign buyers from competing against young Australians for homes when a ban of that nature has already been announced and starts on Tuesday of next week. They claimed to be outraged about 29,000 businesses that have gone insolvent without mentioning that insolvencies as a proportion of companies under the Albanese Labor government is in fact the lowest of any government on record. While they might want to talk about 29,000 businesses across the term, what they don't want to mention is 25,000 new companies registered every single month, which makes the average monthly new company registrations higher under this government than under any other government on record. For every single metric that those opposite put out, every principle they claim they believe in, they vote the opposite way. I'd love to understand how you're meant to help with the cost of living by making taxes higher, wages lower and getting rid of cost-of-living relief.

Let's not forget that someone kept telling me that the best guide to future actions is past performance. The best guide to future actions is past performance, and the Liberal Party has been fundamentally a party that has decided, under the leadership of this Leader of the Opposition and this shadow Treasurer, it's so committed to saying no to everything that it will say no to tax cuts, no to wage rises and no to cost-of-living relief. People know that when the Leader of the Opposition cuts, they will pay. That is what people know. People know that he wants to cut wages, because the opposition kept wages flatlining, and everything we've done to get wages moving in this country, those opposite have opposed. When he launches those wage cuts, people will pay for them.

We've made prescription medicines cheaper, getting them down to the prices they were in 2004. Yet, every time we've acted on cheaper medicines, those opposite have opposed us. Whenever they see something that will help Australians, those opposite have been absolutely determined to oppose it—every single measure. Those opposite are absolutely committed to higher taxes, lower wages and getting rid of cost-of-living relief. You don't have to believe their interviews or their rhetoric; you just have to look at how they voted.

Up until now, we haven't had a vote in this parliament where they've actually gone through with their rhetoric and voted for higher taxes. Here's an opportunity for all those on the back bench, for all those on the front bench, for all those people—and I don't know who you are—who give the background comments to the papers about how much they hate the economic decisions that are being made by their leadership group. I don't know what level of consultation happened before the opposition announced they were going to oppose the tax cuts. I don't know what level of consultation happened, but I do know this: in the vote in a couple of minutes time, because you keep boasting to us that in your party you can vote your own way, you're about to own this vote. You're about to be in a situation where, for every elector, you either support them getting a tax cut or you don't. It will be on the Hansard record. It's a vote you'll never be able to walk away from. You can't blame the leadership, because you keep telling us you can vote whichever way you want. My simple call to every member of this parliament is, if you believe there should be a tax cut for every Australian, then vote for this bill. If you believe in higher taxes, then vote no and own the consequences.

I move:

That the question be now put.

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