Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

I hope Australian families know how to swim, because the Labor Treasurer of just six months standing, Dr Jim Chalmers, has thrown them in the deep end and is not offering them a lifeline. This afternoon you'll hear coalition senators and Labor senators make their contributions and their observations about last night's budget, but let me share with the chamber what the Daily Telegraph had to say today:

Bugger all—that's what the budget does to combat intense cost of living pressures being felt right now, but Jim Chalmers argues new immediate help would do more harm than good by adding to inflation.

No lifeline for Australian families. The Financial Review this morning said:

The Albanese government has warned of 'hard days to come' as it laid the groundwork for an agenda of tax increases and spending cuts with a federal budget that forecast debt and deficit over the next decade to be worse than just six months ago.

And no lifeline for Australian families. The Australian said today:

Jim Chalmers puts hard calls on hold in a forgettable economic statement. I think Labor took a huge liberty over the last six months by preparing the country for a budget which, at best, was an economic statement and, at worst, provides no confidence to Australian families as they face the very real and immediate impacts of the rising cost of living.

Finally, Sky News said:

This budget is about giving with one hand to families and telling them on the other hand, power prices are going to take it away again, if not more.

Six months ago, Australian families put their faith in Labor. Labor's narrow election victory carried the hopes of many ordinary Australian families. And the news they woke up to this morning was that the priorities and needs of Australian families are of no interest to Labor, are of no interest to Anthony Albanese, are of no interest to Jim Chalmers.

What did the budget say last night? The budget added to those 97 occasions already where Labor had promised a $275 cut in power prices. This budget confirms a more than 50 per cent increase in energy prices. Labor had promised to the Australian people in the lead-up to the election campaign there would be an improvement in real wages. The budget showed that real wages are going backwards. The budget also showed that Labor has dumped the tax cap, and Labor's plans are to deliver a sneaky new tax on investors and retirees. Let's see how far that goes when that particular Treasury bill comes to the Senate.

The situation facing Australian families is stark. Petrol prices are on the rise. Mortgage costs are on the rise. Food prices are on the rise. And Mr Chalmers and the Prime Minister have decided that Australian families should suffer, that Australian families should be the front line of this country's defence in these challenging economic times.

In his first speech as Prime Minister-elect on election night, Mr Albanese, the Prime Minister, made his core promise very clear to Australians who did vote for him but also to Australians who didn't vote him:

No one left behind because we should always look after the disadvantaged and the vulnerable—

He went on to promise—

But also no one held back, because we should always support aspiration and opportunity.

At the first opportunity Labor had to put its values on display to our country, it decided it would not provide much-needed support and would not provide a lifeline to Australian families. It is a shocking, rude, sad revelation. Australian families would've gone to bed last night and woken up this morning realising the future ahead of them is bleak.