Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on behalf of the families and retirees in Fisher who are fed up with this Labor government. They're fed up with the smoke and mirrors and the broken promises. After six months in office, Labor have demonstrated that their priorities are entirely out of whack. They'd rather fund climate warrior training programs than build a veterans wellbeing centre in south-east Queensland. They're out of their depth, chopping and changing, dithering and delaying, on cybersecurity and energy affordability. After six months in office, it's clear that they're out of touch with the Australian people.

In their latest egregious betrayal of trust, this Labor government has broken its promise on franking credits. Before the election, both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer promised Australian retirees and investors that there'd be no changes to franking credits. On 4 March 2022, the Prime Minister promised Perth radio listeners that, when it came to franking credits, 'Labor are not touching them.' Just weeks later, he told the ABC that Labor wouldn't have any changes to the franking credits regime. Yet, low and behold, in the federal budget in October, Labor, in a very sneaky way, included a change to the franking system designed to eliminate the payment of franked dividends to Australian investors through off-market share buybacks. In the words of AFR journo, Geoff Wilson, this is a:

… complete regulatory overreach. These two policies are an underhanded attempt to tear apart the franking system introduced by Keating in 1987.

Brian from Pelican Waters in my electorate is worried about the impact of these changes on his livelihood in a time of economic uncertainty. Kevin from Buddina calls this latest move an act of bad faith. Ken and Henry from Montville feel that it's an unfair burden on those who've worked so hard to fund their retirement—and they're right. This $550 million tax grab doesn't hide the fact that Labor has no plan for our economy. At least the member for Maribyrnong had the decency to come out and tell the Australian people their policies on franking credits. That's part of the reason why they lost the 2019 election. But at least, as the opposition leader, the member for Maribyrnong had the decency and the intestinal fortitude to come out and tell Australians what the Labor Party were going to do should they win government. This time they were absolutely mute; in fact, they denied they were going to make any changes. But that is exactly what they've done this time around. Shame on them! This government has no plan and no idea and is out of touch with everyday Australians.