David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

This year has seen a windfall in both political and budget capital for the government. As we face the crises of climate, environment and cost-of-living pressures, Australians are looking to the government for leadership. Yet we've seen another budget that's a step in the right direction but is lacking in ambition. While it does some good things, this budget cannot be described as bold and decisive. Voices in my community are calling for ambition, ambition that is backed by experts—if we're willing to listen to those experts. We face a biodiversity crisis, and scientists tell us that we need to invest $2 billion annually if we're going to deal with the extinction crisis. We're seeing nowhere near that amount. We're seeing hardly any new money for the environment.

We've got experts telling us what it will take to lift people out of poverty to allow them to get back into the workforce. We've seen a measly increase to JobSeeker and youth allowance. This is a barrier to employment, a barrier to getting people back into the workforce, which we hear both sides of politics saying should be the No. 1 goal. If it is, why would we put barriers in the way of people achieving that? Housing experts tell us that the Housing Australia Future Fund isn't big enough, yet we've got a government pushing forward with a fund that is not up to scratch. There wasn't a huge amount for small businesses in the budget, and it is a continuous challenge for us to better support small businesses, coming out of the pandemic. One thing that really stood out to me was that research and development spending was the lowest on record. It's the lowest R&D spending as a percentage of GDP on record. This should send alarm bells ringing. Labor themselves have a target of three per cent. It's at 0.49 per cent at the moment, and there's a lot of work to do in that space.

Finally—I'm running out of time—I think the budget surplus shows that we do need to have a conversation about revenue in this country. We're going to have to have some discussions about tax and to stop being so reliant on income tax. There are plenty of other ways we can shape our tax system to provide the services that Australians want.