Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To Australians listening tonight, thank you very much for your time. Soon, you'll have a say in determining the future of our great country. We live, literally, in the best country in the world, and we're the beneficiaries of what our forbears have built and defended. We love this country because it has forged us into a remarkable people. We're compassionate, we're stoic, we're fair and we're quietly patriotic. We cherish this country because it affords opportunities like no other, but only—and I stress this point—if we're governed well. When Australia is governed badly, dreams and ambitions become beyond reach. And that's what has happened during the last three years of the Albanese government.

In my travels across the country, Australians tell me that they're working hard but they're not getting ahead. In Perth, a mum in a grocery store in tears told me how she, her husband and her children couldn't keep their heads above water with the bills stacking up. In Adelaide, I spoke with a food manufacturer whose electricity prices had gone up by about 300 per cent. In Victoria, I spoke with a supermarket employee, a woman in her 60s, who had a machete held against her throat during a robbery. In Brisbane, I listened to a young couple in their 30s who have moved back in with their parents because they simply can't buy a home even though both of them are working overtime. Such stories have now become commonplace across our country—stories of rent and mortgage stress; stories of power, shopping and insurance bills going through the roof; stories of home ownership being out of reach for so many; stories of it being increasingly difficult to see and to afford a GP; and stories of crime on our streets. For so many Australians, aspiration has turned to anxiety, optimism to pessimism and national confidence to national uncertainty. The truth is Australians can't afford three more years of the Albanese government.

Every election is important. But this election does matter more than others in recent history. It is a sliding-doors moment for our nation. A returned Albanese government in any form won't just be another three bleak years. More economic mistakes will take a lot longer to recover from. Setbacks will be set in stone, and our prosperity will be damaged for decades to come. But you have the power to change the path our country's on, you have the ability to reverse decline, and you have the opportunity to get our country back on track. You can do that by voting for your Liberal or Nationals candidate so that a new Dutton coalition government can be elected. At this election, the choice could not be clearer. Tonight, I'll outline the choice Australians face at this election and our plan to fix Labor's mess. We have a positive plan to deliver: a stronger economy with lower inflation, cheaper energy, affordable homes, quality health care and safer communities; a plan to help you and your families; a plan to bring about a stronger, safer and better Australia; a plan to usher in more confident, resilient and self-reliant people right across the country. And we need to accept that we live in a more dangerous and disruptive world. To these ends, tonight I'll announce new policies that a coalition government would implement.

Tonight I commit a coalition government to the following. We will introduce four critical pieces of legislation on the first sitting day in the next parliament: (1) the energy price reduction bill; (2) the lower immigration and more homes for Australians bill; (3) the keep Australians safe bill; and (4) the guaranteed funding for health, education and essential services bill. This is my signal to the Australian people of what my priorities will be in government.

In his fourth budget, like the previous three, the Treasurer again painted a rosy picture of the economy. But Australians aren't silly. Your bills tell the true story of Labor's cost-of-living crisis, and here are the facts of the Albanese government's economic record: rents are up by 18 per cent, housing is up by 14 per cent, groceries are up by a staggering 30 per cent, electricity is up by 32 per cent and insurance is up for many households and businesses by 35 per cent. Australians have experienced the longest household recession and the worst collapse in living standards in our country's history. Under Labor, interest rates have gone up 12 times but only been cut once, and they've stayed higher for longer compared to other, comparable nations.

This budget makes clear that Labor was only able to deliver two surpluses, piggybacking off the former coalition government's strong economic management, as well as record commodity price windfalls. And now the outlook is one of deficits as far as the eye can see. For three years Labor peddled the lie that they inherited a trillion dollars of debt, yet the budget papers that we saw on Tuesday night confirm that the Labor Party will burden Australia with a trillion dollars of debt as of next year.

Tuesday's budget was one for the next five weeks, not one for the next five years. It was a shameless election voting exercise, not a plan for our country's future. It was about saving Prime Minister Albanese, not about you and certainly not about safeguarding our nation. Jim Chalmers's so-called tax cut top-up is simply a tax cut cop-out. It's a cruel hoax. Labor will spend $17 billion of taxpayers' money to give you back 70c a day in 15 months time, and yet a family with a typical mortgage under this government is $50,000 worse off. I think it's insulting, to be honest.

We oppose these tax cuts and will repeal them because we think there's a better way to provide assistance to Australians. We will provide immediate cost-of-living relief for Australians. A coalition government will halve the fuel excise for 12 months, and then we'll review it. We'll make sure that that comes in on the first day that our parliament sits. For a household with one car filling up once a week, that's a saving of about $14 a week, or around $700 over the year. For a household with two cars filling up once a week, that is a saving of $28 a week, or around $1,500 over 12 months. Compare that to 70c a day in 15 months time. Working with industry, we'll ensure that heavy-vehicle road users also benefit from this measure, and we'll make sure the ACCC will ensure that the fuel excise cut will be passed on in full to consumers. The policy will cost $6 billion.

Amidst Labor's cost-of-living pressures, charities are experiencing increased demand, including from Australians who never previously relied on that support. To scale up assistance and provide immediate relief, we will commit $50 million for food charities like food banks SecondBite and OzHarvest to expand their services and to include school breakfast programs. They approached the government with this plan, and it was rejected in this budget.

Of course, to get out of Labor's economic mess and to tackle Labor's cost-of-living crisis, we need hard decisions and a proper plan. A coalition government will do three things: first, we will rein in inflationary spending; second, we will reduce the cost of energy; and, third, we will strengthen the economy so that it works for you. I just want to address each of those aspects in turn. Over three years, the Albanese government has increased spending as a share of the economy more than any government since the recession of the 1990s. It's lifted spending by an extraordinary $425 billion. That's about $40,000 per Australian household. Much of this spending hasn't gone to essential services or generated economic activity. Rather, it's been inflationary, it's been ineffectual, and it's been wasteful. Such rapid and unrestrained spending is not only adding to the debt that our children will have to repay but also keeping the pressure on inflation. During a cost-of-living crisis that's the last thing that you want. The Reserve Bank governor has independently pointed out this great failing in this bad government.

Core inflation under this government has averaged more than double what it was under the coalition. Personal income taxes paid have also increased by about 24 per cent under Labor. The average taxpayer is now paying $3,500 more tax this year alone or, for a dual income household, $7,000. That's a big hit. I want Australian families to be making choices about what they will eat, not choices about whether they can eat or heat, which is the prospect facing many people, particularly pensioners and people on low incomes, in our country right now.

I want to make sure that we can fight the cost-of-living pressures, because we need to get interest rates down. To get interest rates down, we need, of course, to get inflation down. To get inflation down, we need to address its underlying causes, and that's something the government hasn't done. We want to stop wasteful government spending, and tonight I announce that a coalition government will reign in key inflationary, ineffectual and imprudent spending, which has been a hallmark of this government. We will end the reckless $20 billion Rewiring the Nation Fund. We will stop the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which has not built a single additional home. We will scrap Labor's nearly $14 billion of production tax credits for green hydrogen because it is not going to work. We'll reverse Labor's increase of 41,000 Canberran public servants because it will save about $7 billion a year. That's money that we can provide back to the Australian people in frontline services. The growth rate of public servants under this government in Canberra is about three times the rate it was under the Rudd-Gillard government.

But I make this guarantee to the Australian people tonight: in line with our national interest, we will continue to invest in essential services and critical areas of the economy like health and aged care, veteran support, the NDIS, Indigenous affairs, child care and defence. We won't cut frontline service delivery roles. We will ensure that the services Australians rely on are sustainable.

Under Labor, you will be guaranteed a number of things, but one thing I'm sure of is more reckless and wasteful spending, which will cause interest rates and inflation to stay higher for longer. That means you'll pay more for everything—more for food, more for your rent, more for your mortgage, more for power and more for insurance. You'll continue to pay more tax too. But, under the coalition, we will fight cost-of-living pressures at their source.

At the very centre of Labor's cost-of-living crisis, is, of course, the skyrocketing cost of energy. That's due, of course, to Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen's reckless renewables-only policy train wreck. As every Australian knows, energy is the economy. Australians are paying some of the highest power prices in the world—indeed, up to three times more than comparable economies—and the Albanese government has broken its core election promise when it comes to energy. Your electricity bill hasn't gone down by $275 as Labor promised on 97 occasions. The Prime Minister and Treasurer refuse even to mention that word, even though they looked you in the eye and said that they would bring your power prices down by $275 each year.

As Australians can attest, they're now paying $1,300 more than what Labor promised in their energy bills. I think the point to make is that it's not just homeowners and renters who are paying higher power bills. It's farmers, it's business owners, it's cafe owners, and it's manufacturers too. Across the economy, it's costing more to grow food, more to produce goods, more to store the food and the goods and, certainly, more to deliver services, and those costs are just passed on to Australian consumers, which is why Australians are feeling the crunch at the moment. I want Australians to be putting items in their shopping trolley, not putting them back onto supermarket shelves. I want businesses to be able to hire more staff, not put more money aside to pay ever-increasing power bills.

Gas is the key in our country, as it is around the developed world, to manufacturing, to making electricity and to keeping the lights on. But the Albanese government has stalled projects from getting off the ground and created a national gas emergency due to insufficient supply. We now know that, in our country, Victoria is about to spend money building an import terminal to bring gas into Victoria—to import gas into Victoria. Under Labor, gas prices have gone up for households and businesses by 34 per cent and 43 per cent respectively. The coalition understands what Labor won't: you can't run a full-time and functioning economy using part-time and unreliable power.

Under Labor, the energy crisis—and, therefore, your pain—will continue. Bills will keep going up because the cost of putting out 28,000 kilometres of new transmission lines will just be passed on to Australians. Our energy grid will become more unstable, with a greater reliance on sometimes-on power, which equals blackouts and brownouts. And you can expect a lot of energy rationing in Australia under a re-elected Albanese government.

Under the coalition, energy will become affordable and reliable again, where we use a mix of technologies which include always-on power to firm up the renewable sometimes-on power. And the only way to drive down power prices quickly is to ramp up domestic gas production, and tonight I announce our national gas plan. This plan will prioritise domestic gas supply, address shortfalls and reduce energy prices for Australians. This is all about ensuring Australian gas is for Australians.

We will immediately introduce an east coast gas reservation. This will require a proportion between 50 and 100 petajoules of spot cargo exports to be delivered to the domestic market. This will secure an additional 10 to 20 per cent of the east coast demand—gas which would otherwise be exported for use in other markets by consumers in those countries. But our gas needs to be first and foremost for our people. Gas sold on the domestic market will be decoupled from overseas markets to protect Australia from international price shocks, and this will drive down new wholesale domestic gas prices from around $14 per gigajoule to under $10 per gigajoule. And this is just the start.

We will immediately audit development-ready projects, with a focus on the southern states. We will fast-track a decision on Western Australia's North West Shelf project. The government has delayed a decision on that project, conveniently, until 31 May, which happens to be after the election. So good luck in WA! We will halve approval times. We will defund the activist led Environmental Defenders Office, which has been disgraced and which has obstructed projects.

We will accelerate new investment into gas projects by reinstating a $300 million strategic basin plan and include gas in the Capacity Investment Scheme. We will invest $1 billion into a critical gas infrastructure fund and increase gas pipeline and storage capacity. We will put in place 'use it or lose it' stipulations for gas-drilling companies so offshore gas fields are not locked up for years. And we will ensure that we have a fit-for-purpose gas trigger to safeguard supply.

This plan will lower wholesale gas prices, which will flow across the economy. Our national gas plan is expected to push prices down for new gas sales to below $10 per gigajoule, compared to the $14 in the market today. Energy prices will always be lower under a coalition government.

A coalition government will also secure our nation's energy security for decades to come and over the longer term. We will join the other 19 top economies in the world in adopting proven zero-emissions nuclear power. This is one of the most visionary and necessary policies put forward in our country's history. It was supported by Bob Hawke, and it's supported by John Howard and other leaders of our nation. It will underpin our energy security for the next century. Our plan has been independently costed at 44 per cent cheaper than Labor's plan. Labor has never been able to dispute that outcome. What it means is that there are savings of $263 billion for Australians. If a plan is cheaper, electricity prices will be cheaper as fewer costs are passed on to consumers. Nuclear power's high yield of energy and small footprint means that there's no need to carpet our national parks, prime agricultural land and coastlines with industrial-scale renewables. The coalition has the only energy policy which protects our environment and safeguards the livelihoods of regional Australia.

The exorbitant cost of energy is one reason why a record 29,000 small businesses have gone insolvent under Labor. It's one reason why there's been a threefold increase in the number of manufacturers who have closed under Mr Albanese's watch. But another reason is Labor's excessive regulation and interference in the economy. Sectors critical to our economy, like mining, manufacturing, forestry, fishing and agriculture, have been crippled by Labor's weaponisation of environment industry IR and cultural heritage laws. We are seeing industries simply pack up and go offshore and international partners withdraw investment from our country. For all of Anthony Albanese's talk of a future made in Australia, the opposite is actually a fact. Less is being made in Australia under this government's watch and more is being made abroad. The last three years are a lesson: no government can subsidise the economy to success. Under Labor, we will continue to see a hollowing-out of our economy. Industries and businesses will continue to collapse in record numbers or simply move operations offshore, which means that we'll lose those jobs.

Under the coalition, we will build a stronger economy, not only by getting power prices down but also by ripping up as much red tape and green tape as possible. Tonight, I commit to removing regulatory burdens where we can, where there's duplication across local, state and federal government, during a first-term coalition government. My intention is to make Australia a mining, agriculture, construction and manufacturing powerhouse once again. The revenue generated from these revived sectors will create more money to build new infrastructure, to fund health and education and, importantly, to equip our defence forces. In addition to backing our natural strengths, we will encourage new areas of the economy, like artificial intelligence, automation, cybersecurity, space, and bio- and nanotechnologies.

AUKUS, too, has the potential to foster a new arm of our economy and transform our civil industrial base. We will spend taxpayers' money wisely, in a manner which has an economic multiplying effect, in a way which generates productivity and can attract new investment. That's better for you and your family. It will create jobs for your children and grandchildren.

We will curtail union militancy in workplaces. We will revert to a simple definition of 'casual worker'. The corrupt and disgraced CFMEU, who have donated $11 million to the Labor Party, which in turn has seen the Labor Party turn a blind eye to them and their illegal conduct, will be deregistered. The construction industry watchdog will be restored so that we can have safety again on big building sites. New antiracketeering laws will be legislated and a dedicated Australian Federal Police led taskforce will tackle the criminal elements in our building sector that are ripping off Australians and undermining productivity. Prime Minister, I would never tolerate seeing a member of a union—or any person, for that matter—kicking a woman on camera and not even commenting in relation to it. It was a disgrace, and it was a disgrace that this government allowed it to happen. It is a common practice from the CFMEU.

Reviving growth also means having the backs of small business, including through tax relief. We've got tax relief coming for small business. We will increase the instant asset write-off from $1,000 under this government to $30,000, and we are going to make that arrangement ongoing. We will provide a deduction of up to $20,000 per year for small businesses for business related meal expenses, which is also a much-needed shot in the arm for struggling cafes, restaurants and pubs. If your kids or grandkids work in a local cafe or at a local pub or club, this will see them get more hours and have more secure employment. It will allow the local real estate agency or a builder to take staff to a local cafe to celebrate a big sales event or simply to say thank you to their hardworking employees. It creates jobs, and it supports the struggling hospitality sector. I want small businesses to be taking calculated risks, not shutting up shop.

Reviving growth and preparing our economy for the future also means supporting skills development. Tonight, I announce that a coalition government will set a target of 400,000 apprentices and trainees in training across Australia. Our plan is to restore targeted and proven incentive payments for employers to hire and train an apprentice. We will provide small and medium businesses with $12,000 to support them to put on a new apprentice or trainee in critical skills areas for the first two years of their training. It will have a particular focus on the building and construction sector.

Addressing Labor's cost-of-living crisis and energy crisis is just the start. In its first two years, the government brought in a million people through the migration program. That's 70 per cent more migrants than in any two-year period in Australia's history. Of course, there will be consequences. And yet, after three years in power, the Albanese government hasn't delivered a single additional new home built under its failed housing policies. Australians are generous and welcoming people, but they want migration to be sustainable and the government to be in control of it. Labor neither is in control of migration nor has kept migration at sustainable levels, and Australians know it. I don't want young Australians locked out of the property market or having to rely on the bank of mum and dad. I want to see fewer Australians homeless and more Australians in homes. Under Labor, migration will continue to put pressure on housing, on infrastructure and on services. But, under the coalition, we will cut the migration intake to free up housing and restore the great Australian dream of homeownership.

We will cut the permanent migration program by 25 per cent. We will ban foreign investors and temporary residents from purchasing existing Australian homes for a period of two years. We will set stricter caps on foreign students to relieve stress on rental markets, and we will invest $5 billion in essential infrastructure to get stalled housing projects up and going, and it's going to create 500,000 new homes. We will allow for first home buyers to access up to $50,000 of their super for a home deposit because it's better to get into a home sooner.

When a government doesn't have any achievements to speak about, which is the reality for this government, it resorts to smears and scare campaigns. There's no greater sign of the Albanese government's desperation than its 'Mediscare' campaign—Labor's third attempt in less than a decade. But, while Labor peddles falsehoods, we'll remind Australians of the facts. On this government's watch, bulk-billing nationally has fallen by 11 per cent. There have been 41 million fewer bulk-billing episodes with GP services under this government. And more than 270 GP practices have closed under this government's watch. Australians should never have to choose between seeing a doctor or paying their bills. Under Labor, Australians will have ongoing pressures on the health system, but, under the coalition, we will deliver quality health care. We will invest $9.4 billion into health. That includes incentivising junior doctors, as I announced last year, to work as GPs to address the current shortages at your local clinic. We will boost Medicare bulk-billing. We will invest in hospitals, especially in high-population-growth areas where there is the biggest strain on services. We will guarantee cheaper medicines and lower the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payment to $25, and we'll invest $500 million into women's health. And we will double the subsidised mental health sessions from 10 20 and make this arrangement permanent.

Many young Australians require access to mental health services in any given year, and tonight I announce that a coalition government will invest an additional $400 million into youth mental health services. We will expand the remit of the National Centre for Excellence in Youth Mental Health, which I created in 2014, into a national institute. We will boost regional services and expand treatment to Australia at the forefront of youth mental health treatment in the world.

We will continue to support the world-leading Medical Research Future Fund, which I established as the then health minister. There is now more than $20 billion in that fund, and it's providing support to our specialists all around the country, to scientists, to researchers and to labs—all of them working on incredible projects. That funding will continue to provide them with support and Australians with hope.

In my travels across the country, Australians tell me they've never been more worried about crime and division in our community. It started with the Prime Minister's Voice referendum, which sought to divide our country by ancestry and race. He then left a vacuum of leadership following the crime wave in Alice Springs and the antisemitism on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. All too often, the Prime Minister is too weak, too late and too equivocal. This government has released 300 hardcore criminals from immigration detention into the community, with more than a third having reoffended against Australian citizens. It granted tourist visas to 3,000 people from a terrorist-controlled war zone, conducted without security checks that should have been put in place. It has failed to deter people smugglers trying to reach our shores by illegal boats. It has turned a blind eye when our military personnel have been endangered. It didn't stand up for our country when Chinese communist warships entered our waters without notice. It relied on Virgin Australia pilots to alert us to the Chinese navy's live fire exercise off our coast.

Australia should be a country where people live without fear and without worrying about the future. Under Labor, you'll get the same weakness of leadership that has compounded crime and emboldened antisemitism on our streets. You'll get a nation that is less safe and less secure. But, under the coalition, we will provide the moral and political leadership needed to restore law, order and justice. We will establish a dedicated antisemitism taskforce to turn the tide of this scourge of hatred. Every Australian should be equally treated. We will work with states and territories to develop national uniform knife laws. We will toughen bail laws to stop domestic violence offenders. We will again stop the boats, just as we did in 2013, and we will again deport dangerous non-citizen criminals, just as I did as home affairs minister in cancelling 6,300 visas of murderers, sex offenders and drug traffickers, something this government hasn't continued.

We will again invest in defence to play our part as a credible partner to deter aggression and to maintain peace. We've already committed to $3 billion of additional funding to reinstate the fourth squadron of the F-35 joint strike fighters cancelled by Labor. Our plan is to energise our domestic defence industry and to retool the ADF with asymmetric capabilities to deter a larger adversary. During the election campaign, we will announce our significant funding commitment to defence—a commitment which, unlike Labor's, will be commensurate with the challenges of our times. The Prime Minister of our country and the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Defence, tell Australians regularly that we live in the most precarious period, the most dangerous period, since the end of the Second World War. What leader of a country says that and then doesn't do anything about it? We will nurture pride and unity in our country. We will provide support to the Australian Defence Force to keep us safe today and into generations ahead at a time when we most need it. That starts by making sure that we don't fail young Australians. I think this is an incredibly important point. A coalition government will restore a curriculum that teaches the core fundamentals in our classrooms, a curriculum that cultivates critical thinking, responsible citizenship and common sense.

This election is as much about leadership as it is about policy, and the choice is clear at the next election. I will be a strong leader with a steady hand. I will make the tough decisions, not shirk them. I will put the national interest first. I will lead with conviction, not walk both sides of the street. I have real life experience to demonstrate it, as a veteran of the police force who dedicated nine years to protecting Australians, especially women and children; as a small business owner who started and successfully ran businesses; as someone who came from a working-class background and knows the value of hard work and the aspiration that drives Australians; and as a parent, along with my wife, Kirilly, who understands that family is the most important unit in our society. I want to give a shout-out to Kirilly tonight. She's just had surgery on her wrist and is at home watching with Rebecca, Harry and Tom—unless maths clashes with this broadcast.

I've been an assistant treasurer in our country. I've been a minister for health, a minister for immigration, a minister for home affairs and a minister for defence, which was an enormous honour. I lead a united and incredibly capable team. We're ready to govern. We're ready to deliver a stronger economy with lower inflation, cheaper energy, affordable homes, quality health care and safer communities. We will govern with respect for the views, values and vision of everyday Australians.

Australians are worse off under the Albanese government, and Australians cannot afford three more years of this bad Labor government. I say to Australians tonight: at this election, you can make the right choice. You can make a better choice for you, a better choice for your family and a better choice for your country. Together, let's build a stronger, safer and better Australia, and let's get our country back on track.

Debate adjourned.

House adjourned at 20 : 08

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Payne ) took the chair at 09:30.