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

TAYLOR () (): I rise to speak on the appropriation bills of 2024-25. These bills, Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025 and the Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2024-25, provide for the funds from consolidated revenue for the 2024-25 financial year. Collectively, these bills provide for expenditure worth $187.5 billion to support the operation of government for that year. We, of course, will be supporting these bills; however, the budget handed down with these appropriation bills has failed Australians.

Australia needed a budget that took a back-to-basics approach to getting the country back on track. That means, firstly, that what we needed in the budget was a restoration of our standard of living that finally addressed the inflation and interest rate pressures being felt by families right across Australia: at the check-out, when they pay their energy bills, when they pay their mortgages, when they pay their rent—when they pay for anything. We're seeing enormous pressures on Australians, and the restoration of that standard of living had to be the first priority of this government.

Secondly, we needed a government that restored prosperity and created opportunity for all Australians, particularly younger Australians, by helping them into homes and by supporting small businesses to invest in the future to create a pathway for low-inflation, competitive, high-productivity growth that would be good for all Australians.

Thirdly, we needed a government that restored the budget disciplines that had been dropped by this government from the moment they handed down their very first budget. They dropped those budget disciplines that had been in place since the Charter of Budget Honesty, fiscal guardrails that ensure we have a low-inflation, high-growth economy that we all want to see, was put in place by Peter Costello.

Sadly, the budget has failed all of these tests. It has simply delivered more spending and more taxation and has not delivered the restoration of the Australian standard of living that we all want to see. Labor's third budget, like its past budgets, tries to put bandaids on bullet wounds rather than deliver those underlying solutions that deal with the sources of the problem and not the symptoms of the cost-of-living crisis that Australians are facing under this government.

The fact is that Australians still won't see the $275 reduction in their energy bills that this Prime Minister promised so many times before the last election. It wasn't just him; it was also the rest of the ministers, including, of course, the hapless energy minister. They all claimed that this reduction was coming through, and there has been no sign of it. There has been no sign of it, and not once has any government minister been able to stand up at the dispatch box and say that they're still committed to the $275 reduction, because they've failed to deliver it. In fact, many Australians will now need to see a $1,000 cut in their bills just to get the promised $275.

Similarly, this Prime Minister promised cheaper mortgages to the Australian people, but after two years and three budgets the average Australian household with a mortgage is $35,000 worse off. Cheaper mortgages? They're $35,000 worse off. This just tells you how out of touch this government is.

According to the experts, the budget is likely to simply keep those rates higher for longer because it is doing nothing to take pressure off inflation. Michael Blythe, Chief Economist of PinPoint Macro, said the budget 'adds to the higher for longer to the interest rate thesis'. Cherelle Murphy, Chief Economist from EY, has said:

… the Budget has thwarted the task of tightening the structural deficit.

It also undermines the Government's inflation forecast—which was lowered below the Reserve Bank's forecast and assumed to drop into the 2-3 per cent target band by the end of this year.

It has undermined that inflation forecast. In other words, inflation is expected to be worse than they had said. The government's energy bill relief is simply a political trick, according to former Reserve Bank Board member Warwick McKibbin, and 'smoke and mirrors' according to Brendan Rynne, KPMG's Chief Economist. This budget has been panned by economists across the board. The fact is that after two years and three Labor budgets, Australians have become poorer under Labor. Australians have become poorer under Labor. Despite being promised, before the election, cheaper mortgages, cheaper power bills and a lower cost of living, time and time again Australians have seen nothing of the sort.

Alongside raging inflation, Australia is in an entrenched GDP-per-person recession. Our standard of living has fallen by more than seven per cent since the last election—two years—a collapse that is unprecedented in comparison to other advanced economies. Real wages for working households have collapsed by almost nine per cent. Our consumer confidence remains entrenched at recessionary lows. McKinsey has labelled Australia as being in a productivity recession. The number of unemployed people and the number of people on JobSeeker's caseload are increasing. Most alarmingly, youth unemployment has increased, and we've seen more than 16,000 businesses enter insolvency since June 2022. The Economist has declared that Australia has the most entrenched inflation in the advanced world, and inflation remains stubborn—The Economist says—because our policy settings are not right. Domestic inflation is running at more than five times imported inflation. This Treasurer likes to say it's all someone else's fault, but the truth is that the RBA Governor has said that Australia's inflation is homegrown.

We've now seen three Labor budgets. They've had three chances to make the right decisions and focus on the right priorities, but Labor's only answer on each occasion has been for a big-spending, big-taxing, big-government, big-Australia approach. Australia has committed to an extra $315 billion of spending since the last election. That's more than $30,000 for every Australian household, and there are not many Australian households who will say they're feeling the benefit of that kind of extraordinary government spending. On policy decisions in this budget, Labor is spending $4 for every dollar raised. Government spending as a percentage of GDP is forecast to be at its highest level since the mid-eighties—outside of the pandemic—and nominal spending is growing at 16 per cent over the next two financial years. There's double the rate of economic growth—we see the same when you look at real growth as well as nominal.

Labor says this is unavoidable, but included in this spending is unnecessary waste. We saw $450 million spent on a failed referendum, billions in corporate welfare, millions in grants to the union movement, funding of anti-resource-project activists, and more than $85 million for spin units in the Treasurer's department. When he can't deal with a substantive issue, he just spends money on spin. That's what he does. There are 36,000 additional public servants in this budget, and there's $45 billion in off-budget spending that we've opposed. This so-called unavoidable spending is unavoidable only to Labor.

We need a better way. In order to get Australia back on track, we need a back-to-basics economic agenda that gets the country back on track. We've announced policies that will make it easier to get a job or run a business supporting pensioners, veterans and jobseekers to work more without losing their payments. We have policies that will restore the dream of homeownership by letting first home buyers and older women access super to help with a deposit and by aligning migration and housing. We will make our communities safe and secure with practical policies like banning sports betting advertisements during live sport, doubling the size of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation and making it illegal to glorify criminal activity online. We will ensure our lights stay on, our manufacturers stay open and we bring down power bills by investing in the gas we need now and in the future. We will make it easier to see a doctor and access mental health and women's health treatments by supporting the training of the next generation of GPs and by committing funding for endometriosis and ovarian cancer. All of these are crucial priorities, with the last one, I would say as a regional MP, hugely important to health in our regions.

A coalition government will put productivity and per-person GDP growth at the centre of its economic strategy because that's what's required to support higher real wages without higher inflation. This allows both workers and businesses to flourish. We've already gone far further than typical oppositions, opposing more than $58.7 billion of Labor's new spending, and that's because Labor has no fiscal guardrails. It's abandoned the rules that have supported every good budget since Peter Costello established the Charter of Budget Honesty, including putting a speed limit on taxing and spending through a tax-to-GDP cap, constraining spending growth to less than GDP growth and committing to reducing debt and delivering structural surpluses over the medium term. We will re-establish those rules. Getting productivity back on track is essential because the first step of tax reform is to restrain the growth in spending. The gap between receipts and payments, at $43 billion in just over a year's time, is absolutely not sustainable.

Of course, Labor wants to support future spending growth with never-ending bracket creep. Australia has high rates of income tax and one of the highest company tax rates in the world. Indeed, we've seen Australian households paying more than 23 per cent additional personal income tax since this Labor government came to power. Our guiding principle is that taxes should be, lower, simpler and fairer, and our commitment in this budget reply to make the instant asset write-off permanent is a down payment on this priority. It'll simplify depreciation for 2.5 million small businesses. The Treasurer should have a listen to this. These are policies that would actually deliver low inflation and high growth. This will give small businesses the certainty that they can plan investments on a longer-term basis rather than year to year.

This is a major commitment boosting cash flow in millions of small businesses, rewarding them for having the investment they need to grow their businesses and the economy, and it sits alongside our focus on making sure that housing and immigration come into line in this country, because this government has absolutely lost control of its immigration policy. The result of that is that young Australians are struggling to buy a home or even rent a home as we've seen immigration grow at over 530,000 in a year—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order. The Treasurer will cease interjecting.

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

under this government. Now, we have seen three Labor budgets that have tried to have it both ways: increasing spending while claiming to bring down inflation, increasing taxes while claiming that families are better off and increasing red and green tape while claiming that businesses will invest more. Even today we see more examples of this confused government's economic priorities. The Treasurer is increasing company taxes, clamping down on franking credits, winding back investment incentives and refusing to extend the instant asset write-off. Meanwhile, the industry minister, the minister for business, is calling for company tax to be lower! He's calling for it to be lower. To paraphrase Ross Gittens, not someone who I'm accustomed to quoting, 'This is a government that is so confused, it doesn't know what its own priorities are.'

Our economy is lacking from this lack of clarity: Australian businesses are suffering from this lack of clarity and Australian families are suffering from this lack of clarity. From now until the next election you will see our relentless focus on getting Australia back on track—back to basics. That means a back-to-basics economic plan: fighting high prices and high interest rates; winding back regulatory roadblocks; delivering lower, simpler, fairer taxes; and restoring the dream of homeownership in this country.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very proud to support the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025 and the associated bills—our bills to deliver on our absolute commitment that was through this budget. The two barriers that we had were, firstly, to deliver cost-of-living relief in the short term and to assist people who are under pressure. Secondly, as well, it was to deliver on a Future Made in Australia. How does future economic growth come about?

The shadow Treasurer has just left, just in case there were some questions—like happened at the National Press Club, where he had a shocker last week. We saw there that you'd think they hadn't been in government for a decade, and again through listening to that last contribution. Of course, the budget reply was two days after the Treasurer handed down a budget that delivered a surplus—the second one in a row. It delivered tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, not just some; it delivered energy price relief for every single household, not just some; it delivered the largest investment in housing Australians that we have seen from a government for many decades—$32 billion; and it delivered by strengthening Medicare in every single community by adding 29 urgent care clinics to the 58 that we have already delivered.

But what we had during that budget sitting week was something that I don't think has ever happened before. We had the Treasurer sitting right where he is now today and he didn't get a single question on the economy or on the budget. Not one! This showed just how pathetic the modern Liberal Party has become. There was one contribution, which we had from a backbencher—the member for Moore—and they've knocked him off! And the shadow Treasurer spent the weekend knocking off one of his senators. The fact is that if he concentrated on his job then maybe he could actually assist with debate in this country. But as it is we have an opposition that simply opposes everything, has nothing constructive to offer and has no positive policies.

In under five weeks, 13.6 million Australians will be paying less tax because of our Labor government. For a worker on the average wage of $73,000, that's a tax cut of $1,500. For a family on the average household income of $130,000, it's a tax cut of $2,600. Eighty-four per cent of taxpayers and 90 per cent of women will get a bigger tax cut because of the changes that are in the legislation in this budget, including of course 2.9 million Australians who earn less than $45,000, who would not have got a single cent under the Liberals. Just crickets! Not a single dollar. These tax cuts are better for young people, better for women, better for part-time workers, and better for business and workforce participation too.

Of course, when we announced these changes, those opposite said immediately, before they'd even seen them, that they'd oppose them. The deputy leader of the Liberal Party said they would roll them back, and then the Leader of the Opposition called for an election to be held, so strong was he on this issue—so strong. But then, of course, they voted for them. Having been so principled and so strong, they voted for them because it's the right policy, taken for the right reason, and it will make a positive difference.

Together with a tax cut for every taxpayer comes energy price relief for every household—$300 off the power bill of every home in Australia—and money for small business as well, to reduce their power bills, cutting inflation while we assist people. And we're forecasting, of course, back-to-back budget surpluses for the first time in two decades.

Of course, how much tax comes out of people's wages matters, but what also matters is what's happening with wages. We promised to get wages moving again. Those opposite were horrified by the concept of people on the minimum wage getting $1 an hour more. Well, we're getting real wages moving right across our economy. We've legislated to expand government paid parental leave to a full six months, and in this budget we've added superannuation to it for every working parent. Recently, I was with the member for Richmond in Ballina, and one of the mums there put it like this: 'Just having that super there shows that we value the role of mothers in society and acknowledge that what they do is worth paying for.' Indeed it is. Part of what characterises this government, now and into the future, is that we support gender equity. We regard equality for women as being good for our national economy as well as being good for families.

On election night I spoke about the historic mission of Labor governments: opening the doors of opportunity and widening them. Nothing does that like education. That's why we're wiping $3 billion off student debt and making the system fairer and simpler into the future for everyone. We're building new university hubs in the regions and in the suburbs, and we're investing in new fee-free, university-enabling degrees, giving more Australians a foot in the door at university—something that the University of Newcastle has done for more than 50 years. We're expanding access to university and TAFE for everyone in the suburbs and in the regions. Within a hundred days of coming to government we brought together the states and territories to agree on a plan for 180,000 fee-free TAFE places in priority areas last year. We didn't just deliver those; we delivered 350,000, providing learning for new skills and training for good jobs and boosting productivity in our workforce. We're rolling out another 300,000 places from this year plus an additional 20,000 fee-free places for more tradies to build more homes.

When it comes to homes, there's the $32 billion that we're investing in more social housing, more public housing, more affordable housing for every Australian. But we also have the incentive in the system for build to rent. We have a billion dollars for crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children fleeing family violence. There's new funding for urgent works required for new residential construction, because we know it's often the services that need to be put in for the construction to go ahead. We know from experience that that has been a handbrake. We're working with states, territories and local councils, as well as industry, to achieve it.

In addition to that, we're building new infrastructure right around the country. We've doubled the Roads to Recovery Program in every single local council. We have the North East Link in Victoria, the Sunshine Coast rail link and Warrego Highway in Queensland, new investments in METRONET in Perth, and critical new road and rail infrastructure across Western Sydney. We're upgrading the Lyell Highway in Tassie and the Princes Highway in South Australia.

All of our action on the cost of living builds on the work we've done over the past two years—making child care cheaper for over one million families, helping with the family budget, investing in early education and economic reform, and boosting productivity and participation. In this year's budget, we've made provision for an overdue pay rise for early educators.

In all three of our budgets, we've made Medicare stronger and medicine cheaper for everyone. We are the first government to deliver a reduction in the price of medicines on the PBS since the Chifley government created it way back in 1948. This year and next year, we're freezing the cost of PBS scripts for every Australian, meaning no-one will pay more than $31.60. For pensioners and concession card holders, we're freezing the cost of their medicines for five years, so no pensioner or concession card holder will pay more than $7.70.

Our urgent care clinics have seen more than 400,000 patients. The further 29 urgent care clinics will not only make a difference to the people who see them but make a difference in emergency departments as well by taking the pressure off. Compare that with what the Leader of the Opposition did as Australia's worst-ever health minister. He tried to introduce a GP tax on every visit to the doctor, a tax any time people would turn up to a hospital, and an increase to the cost of medicines as well. He wanted to make bulk-billing history. Our government is making the biggest investment in bulk-billing in history, and we'll continue to strengthen Medicare for everyone.

The other thing that we are doing as a major initiative in this budget—and there will be separate legislation coming through as well—is a future made in Australia. We know that we need to learn the lessons of the pandemic. We need to learn the lessons of making sure that our economy is more resilient, that we're able to stand on our own two feet and that we're not vulnerable to a future pandemic or trade shock.

Nations representing 92 per cent of the global economy and 97 per cent of Australia's trading partners are all signed up to net zero. I'm not sure about those opposite. But, to get there, every one of these countries will need much more clean energy, and much more of all the resources and technology that go into it—the metals, minerals, rare earths and resources our nation has in abundance.

There's nowhere you'd rather be positioned than Australia. We have all of the resources—cobalt, nickel, vanadium, copper and lithium—that will drive the economy as we go forward. We have all of that. We also have a skilled workforce. We're also located in the fastest growing region of the world in human history. And we have space in which we can have large-scale solar and wind in order to produce green hydrogen in order to then use that green hydrogen, that clean energy, to produce advanced manufacturing—green metals and other manufacturing opportunities—because hydrogen in particular has an advantage and a need to be used much more efficiently closer to where it's produced. So we find ourselves in a position of comparative advantage with the rest of the world.

What we need to do, though, is have a government that's prepared to seize that advantage and prepared to back Australia. That's what we've done with production tax credits and with the range of measures that we have for making sure that we can make more things here in Australia. That is how we will drive future economic growth.

This budget delivers help here and now for every Australian under pressure. With our plan for a Future Made in Australia, we're investing in new jobs and opportunities for every part of our nation.

Those opposite have spent two years saying no to helping with the cost of living. They voted against cheaper medicines, they said that fee-free TAFE was a waste of money and they voted against helping families and small business with their power bills. They're saying no to helping people make ends meet, and now they're saying no to making things here in Australia. That is the dead-end road of their negativity—angry at the present and terrified of the future. The Liberals and Nationals want to drag our nation back to the failures of their wasted decade. The challenges we face are too important for that, the opportunities are too big for that and Australians have worked too hard and come too far to go back.

This is a budget of which every member of the government is proud. It's a budget that deals with the challenges of the present but sets us up for a positive future.

Debate adjourned.