James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I like cutting taxes. I think cutting taxes should be the national pastime of Australia. I think cutting taxes should be in the Constitution. I welcome the Labor Party to that moral obligation which is cutting taxes. Cutting taxes is all about handing back to Australians money that they have worked so hard for. It's not the government's money. It's not Canberra's money. It's not the politicians' money. It is the money that belongs to hardworking Australians. So, when you cut taxes, it means hardworking Australians can keep more of their money. They get to decide how their money is spent. So I welcome the Labor Party to the giant jamboree that is the tax-cutting party, the coalition. It is about freedom.

What is disappointing, though, is that we have a Greens party who not only don't want to cut taxes but want to increase taxes on hardworking Australians. Otherwise, how are you going to fund all of their promises? For all of those people thinking about voting for the Greens because they're promising you free dental, free medical and a holiday to the UK every second year, where's that money coming from? That money isn't free. It's not at the bottom of the garden on the money tree that's been grown by the Greens. It's coming from the taxpayers of Australia. Be wary of the Greens and the promises that they make in relation to financial and fiscal rectitude. Remember that the Greens are the party who go around talking about the housing crisis in Brisbane yet, every time someone wishes to develop houses or housing estates in Queensland, are the first to complain about that housing development. The Greens are harbingers of doom when it comes to housing in Queensland, because they don't have any solutions. All that they have are half-baked promises and complaints about other politicians. I wish the Greens would wake up one day to the reality that is modern Australia.

I welcome that the Labor Party have decided to cut some taxes, but what I don't welcome is the manner in which the Prime Minister of this country has dealt with this issue. What we are debating here today may be called the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Tax Cuts) Bill 2024, but the subtext of this bill is about the nature, the beliefs and the values of Prime Minister Albanese, someone who looked down the camera at Australians and said, 'My word is my bond.' There are certain unparliamentary phrases that I'm not allowed to use in this place, but it is clear that the Prime Minister was not telling the truth when he made that statement. We have a Prime Minister of this country who has misled the Australian people in relation to the stage 3 tax cuts. We have a Prime Minister of this country who has misled Australians in relation to power bills. We have a Prime Minister in that party who promised 97 times before the election that they would cut power bills by $275. No-one's power bill in this country has gone down by $275. In fact, everyone's power bill in this country has gone up by multiples of $275 because of Labor's mismanagement of the economy and the energy market.

This is what this debate is also about. It is about the cutting of taxes. It is about the calibre of the Prime Minister. But it is also about cost of living—three words that the Labor Party did not mention at all last year. There were questions put to the Labor front bench by the coalition front bench concerning Labor's approach to, or failure to deal with, cost of living. But Labor, sadly, were focused on wasting $450 million on a divisive referendum that left this country in a worse place. It was not until the Dunkley by-election was called that Labor realised that they'd better do something about cost of living, that they'd better do something about those who live in the electorate of Dunkley whose No. 1 issue is cost of living. That is why Labor have moved on these tax cuts. It is a political response; it is not an economic response.

The stage 3 tax cuts were legislated. Labor are proposing to make changes to the stage 3 tax reform agenda. And it's not about economics. It's not about what's good for the economy, with Labor; it's about pure politics. For example, the Treasurer of this country confirmed, several weeks ago—in an interview that can only be politely described as a train wreck—that the government didn't want to wait until after the Dunkley by-election to make these changes. We have a prime minister who, several weeks ago, was calling upon the coalition to vote against these tax changes, because, you see, it's all about politics with the Labor Party. It's not about what is good for Australia. It's not about what is good for the people of Dunkley. It's not about what is good for the long-term economic future of this country. For Labor, it is all about the politics.

Cost of living has suddenly become an issue to them. They've been briefed by Labor headquarters. The secretary of the Labor Party has walked into the caucus room or the cabinet room and briefed them that cost of living is the No. 1 issue and they'd better do something about that. That's why we are dealing with this legislation today. It is a political response to a cost-of-living crisis that, sadly, this party opposite and this government opposite have wilfully ignored for the last 18 months.

Anyone who speaks to the people of Queensland—anyone who goes to the roadhouses, the cafes, the pubs and the small businesses, and anyone who goes to community meetings—will know, before anyone actually opens their mouth, what the No. 1 issue is. And it hasn't just erupted as an issue in the last month or so. It has been consistent for the last 18 months. Consistently, across Queensland, the No. 1 issue is the failure of the federal government to understand the cost-of-living crisis impacting on Queenslanders, whether that's when they're going to the fuel browser to fill up, or when they're at the supermarket and looking at how much groceries cost, or when they're getting their bills for power or insurance. But what we get from the government opposite is a political response, through this proposed legislation, as well as a catastrophic failure to understand how tough it is out there and a version of Marie Antoinette's 'Let them eat cake.' From the Labor Party, we hear, 'You've never had it so good.' Well, I challenge the Labor Party: you go to Warwick, to Inala or to Ipswich, and you tell those people there, 'You've never had it so good,' and you'll get an answer that you may not like.

Cutting taxes is good. It's sad it's so political, like this. (Time expired)