Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President Williams. You're absolutely right. What I will now do is talk specifically to this matter of public importance, something which I take personal offence to.

What is it that makes people happy, what is it that makes people positive, in politics? Let me tell you what I think it is. I think that what makes people happy, what makes people positive, in politics is when their government delivers on its promises. And I make no bones about it: delivering on political promises is not easy. In fact, I have heard it said that political promises are a little bit like babies: they're very fun to make but hell to deliver.

Senator Ketter interjecting—

I knew you'd like that one! So let's talk about what this government is actually delivering for the people of Australia, in a positive light. This government has been working hard for hardworking Australians. The coalition has delivered in areas which are important to Australia but forgotten by those opposite. Let's talk about the positivity of company tax cuts for companies with a turnover of under $50 million. That covers 3.2 million businesses, and they employ 6.7 million Australians. I think that's something that we can be extraordinarily positive about. What about positive things like $75 billion in infrastructure over the next decade—things like highway upgrades, congestion-busting road and rail projects, improved local roads, inland rail and, of course, a new airport and a new airport link in my home state of Victoria, in my home town of Melbourne? How about positive things like reducing growth in government spending? Let's recall that government spending increased year on year by more than four per cent under Labor. Under this government, it's now actually growing at a slower rate that it has in more than a quarter of a century—1.9 per cent. And we are returning the budget to surplus a year earlier than anticipated. Now, I think that's a very positive news story.

How about the positive news story of returning the rule of law to workplaces by restoring the ABCC and by the introduction of the Registered Organisations Commission? I can understand why that would potentially not be a positive news story for those opposite, but it is over here, and it is for anybody who has a child, a son or a daughter, who works on construction sites. They know now that their child won't be coerced, they won't be bullied, but they will be looked after and their employers can continue to employ them. I think that that's a very positive news story for the individuals who work on construction sites—an end to union lawlessness.

What about positive things like an increase in school funding of $23.5 billion over a decade, a 50 per cent increase for the average student? What about health spending, with record bulk-billing levels and new drugs appearing on the PBS almost weekly at this stage—life-saving medicines changing people's lives? I reckon that's a pretty positive news story. What about a million new jobs? I don't think you could get any more positive than that. Of that million, 400,000 were in the last 12 months alone, and the vast majority of those were full-time and the vast majority of those went to women. How about higher participation rates for women than ever before?

I think these are extraordinarily good news stories. I would suggest that, over there on 'planet Labor', they may think that these things are relentlessly negative, but that's because they have a pathological discontent. They don't really care what matters to Australians. They care what matters to Labor. They care what happens to their union mates. That's what matters to them. That's why the coalition is truly delivering.

Let's talk about what people do find negative. I think that people find two things negative: death and taxes. Yet I've heard on the grapevine that that's exactly what Labor have in mind. I think the real issue of public importance today is Labor's death tax. I read—and tell me if I'm wrong—that the ACTU has, as one of its policy platforms, an inheritance tax. Have I been fooled? Is this new? I was astounded. I thought that Labor's death tax was abolished more than 40 years ago, but it seems to have raised its ugly head once again. Let's have a closer look at this. I want to draw the chamber's attention to a remark that was in TheDaily Telegraphjust last month. It quoted from the ACTU's policy platform. It was buried in the policy document, but it did say:

Consideration should be given to taxing inheritances in the hands of the beneficiary.

It went on to say:

A lifetime threshold could be made available to the taxpayer with tax payable once cumulative inheritances exceeded the threshold.

So, yes—it is, in fact, the usual story: Bill Shorten will deny that Labor have a plan to whack a death tax on the elderly, the same way that Julia Gillard denied that there would be a carbon tax under the government she led. You've got to admire the shamelessness, the pathological discontent of a party that would do this to the population. I mean, it's not bright—don't get me wrong—but it is certainly audacious. It is an audacious and mean-spirited attack on the savings of those who have worked so hard. It is quite remarkable. I know that your union mates over there would happily see the savings of those who work hard—who do the right thing by others and who create jobs—confiscated by a government hell-bent on taxing and spending as the economy increasingly slows down. The death tax goes to the heart of the politics of envy that Labor are all about. Their union mates are actually designing policy to kill the concept of the family business. But why are we surprised? They've been trying to kill business for much longer than that. This is the most anti-business, anti-growth, anti-jobs opposition we have ever seen—I'd like to say since Whitlam, but I think that that's an insult to Whitlam.

Let's have a look at some of the taxes that they've already announced: a housing tax, a $20 billion tax on mum-and-dad investors through their plan to abolish negative gearing for established homes; an investment tax, a $13 billion tax increase on capital gains for all assets, increasing the rate by 50 per cent—I think we're going through some of the 120,000 policies that Senator Ketter has mentioned; their tax return tax, the $3,000 cap on individuals—they're going to get $1.5 billion from that one, apparently; a family business tax, $22 billion on family business trusts—heaven help us; the tradie tax, making changes to tax deductibility for 800,000 self-employed people; and, of course, their growth tax, because they will repeal the company tax cuts that have already gone through. Shame on them and their relentless negativity. If they want higher taxes, if they want to have— (Time expired)