Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Whether it's franking credits or superannuation, you just can't trust Labor on tax. Before the election, the current Prime Minister and the current Treasurer both ruled out changes to franking credits. Before the election, the current Prime Minister and the current Treasurer ruled out changes to super. I note that in Senator Hanson's contribution she asked whether the Labor Party had learnt their lesson from the 2019 election. I think that maybe they did learn a lesson. In 2019 they were upfront and said, 'We're going to change franking credits.' The lesson they learnt was: 'Let's not tell them this time. We won't tell them. We'll promise not to change them, we'll wait until they elect us, and then we'll change them.' It is like a flashback to—oh, God! I've got a blank on his name. He sang for Midnight Oil and was a member of the other place. He was caught on camera saying, 'Don't worry; we'll change it all after we get in.' This is exactly what we're seeing yet again. Peter Garrett—there we go. Here we are. They just can't help themselves. It's completely in their DNA to simply tax you more. They can't have their higher-spending agendas without increasing the taxes.

Labor constantly talk to us about the top end of town, but I say to them: look around you. Wake up to yourselves. Your policies to date have only hurt small-business owners and battlers. You've eroded middle Australia. In fact, it's almost worse than that. You have created a class of working poor, and that class of working poor is consistently growing under this government's inability to rein in inflation and cost-of-living pressures. Families who have two working parents on average incomes are being put in a position where they can't afford to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Now we know they're going to be hit again with increased taxes. Labor talk to us about the big end of town. We heard Senator Wong or Senator Farrell the other day listing the names of big companies they were trying to support, and we heard during the referendum campaign about all the big companies coming out to support them. We know who is cosying up to the big end of town. This is all happening at a time when the banks are recording record profits—more than $7 billion each for CBA, ANZ and Westpac. The Australian dream of having your own patch to call home has pretty much gone up in smoke. According to the ANZ today, only the wealthy can now afford a mortgage. Talk about the top end of town. This government has done wonders for those people. You can't trust Labor to keep promises and you can't trust Labor to run the economy.

The coalition will move amendments to strike out from the Treasury Laws Amendment (2023 Measures No. 1) Bill 2023 the measures that would break these promises. But, if the government doesn't accept these amendments, we will not be supporting this bill, because it is just another broken promise from the Albanese government. I say to the government: you can keep the promise of a referendum, wasting $450 million of taxpayers' money on something that was clearly going to fail, but you can't keep the promises of lower power prices and easing cost-of-living pressures. So enough is enough.

It's a cost-of-living crisis, but Labor's priority seems to be only coming after your money. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer went to the election promising Australians that they wouldn't touch franking credits, and yet in six months they've added two tax grabs on Australian shareholders. This is just another tax on super, another tax on retirement savings and another broken promise on tax. Whether it's franking credits or superannuation, Labor can't control its spending, so it's going to go after the hard-earned dollars of Australians to pay for its pet projects, spending taxpayer money at odds ideologically with two-thirds of the country and only to virtue-signal to its inner city elites, while real Indigenous Australians who need help continue to be ignored. Then, to add insult to injury, you vote down two inquiries—into land councils and into sexual abuse. Then you have the audacity to stand here and act like you care about the plight of innocents in the Middle East. You can't even muster enough energy to care about your own people who you have a duty to serve.

Labor promised retirees and shareholders that, after the 2019 election, franking credit changes were off the table—false promises again. Currently companies that undertake off-market share buybacks and capital-raisings can offer franking credits to investors. But, under Labor's laws, they won't be able to do so. Labor's budget is clear that this is a tax that will raise half a billion dollars. And we know, from Treasury's tax expenditure and income statement, that this disproportionately hits Australians over 75, not-for-profits and Australian super funds, who will no longer be able to access these credits. So work hard all your life, contributing to this country, only to get shafted by this government for all your efforts.

On 1 January 2021 the West Australian reported that the Prime Minister said, 'We will not be taking any changes to franking credits to the next election.' On 30 March 2021 the Prime Minister, on ABC radio, said, 'We won't have any changes to the franking credits regime which is there.' On 15 December 2021 the Prime Minister told Tasmania Talks, 'We've made it clear that, on areas like franking credits and negative gearing, we won't be taking those policies to the next election.' On 4 March 2022 the Prime Minister said, in relation to franking credits, 'We're not touching them.' And on 17 January 2022 the Treasurer said, 'We won't be doing franking credits,' and 'I couldn't be clearer than that.' These were clearly not slips of the tongue from the PM and the Treasurer. It was an agenda of deceit: say what you have to say to disarm the public and then keep on doing what it is that you want to do. Well, I think it's becoming pretty clear that Australians are very much starting to see through it.

Labor's broken promises on superannuation taxes just mean that, on top of soaring cost-of-living pressures, Australians are going to be even worse off than they already are. This government continues to exacerbate cost-of-living pressures and then slugs you again on top of it. Don't worry, because, during their press conferences, they can contort their faces and tell you how much they feel and understand the hurt that Australians are experiencing. Superannuation is your money, not the government's. It's your money to deliver quality of life in retirement, not a piggy bank for government to tax and spend. This government is proposing to double super taxes on one in 10 Australians by the time they retire, stopping companies from offering franking credits to Australian investors, super funds and charities, taxing unrealised capital gains in super, meaning Australian retirees will pay tax on money they haven't even made yet.

Labor were dishonest about changing super, and they've been dishonest about how many Australians will be affected. Despite Labor claiming that fewer than 80,000 Australians will be affected, independent research has shown that, by retirement age, more than 500,000 Australians will be hit by this tax. So Australians are right to be wondering just what this Labor government will tax next. It is just more broken promises. Remember the promise to cut electricity bills by $275? Broken. Remember the promise of cheaper mortgages? Broken. Remember the promise of lower inflation? Broken. And now the promise of no changes to super: broken. What more evidence do we need to know whatever it is this government is doing isn't working? You are flying pilotless, and we need an emergency landing before it all comes crashing down.