Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw the remark. The Prime Minister is trying to spin a $15 a week increase for a small number of Australians into a tax cut for all. What a magnanimous fellow he is. Not exactly committed to reform I might add, not exactly the ultimate reformist, is he? In fact, he's slightly more regressive than progressive when it comes to taxation reform. He's slightly more regressive than progressive when it comes to industrial relations reform too. This country is going backwards. Economic growth is at zero.

Productivity is back where it was in 2017, yet energy prices are going up. Industrial relations are back to where they were in the 1970s, and tax is going up too. We had a chance to do genuine reform to our personal income tax system. We had a chance to do it, and Labor voted for it back then, and now they have reversed that decision. Do you know why? It is because they are cowards. They are cowards towards reform. They don't want to see Australians getting ahead. They genuinely don't. What they want to do is make sure that their union paymasters are well looked after.

So we are not standing in the way of tax cuts—not in a million years. Tax cuts are part of Liberal DNA. They're part of coalition DNA. They're not part of Labor Party DNA, so when they say that we're trying to stand in the way of reform, look twice. Look past the mistruth. Look past: 'We're not considering that. That's not our position.' Look past: 'That's not part of our policy agenda.' What is on their policy agenda? I'll tell you what's on their policy agenda. It's more taxes—taxes on the family home, negative gearing, capital gains tax, a tax on farmers, a tax on truckies. Yet, at the same time, they say, 'Grocery prices are going up. Woe is me! Isn't it terrible. The cost of living! We must get the ACCC to look at that.' They are making the taxes go up. They are making the groceries go up. You are paying for that. You are paying for their failure in economic management.

Quite frankly, they can point in any direction they like, but this is about the Dunkley by-election, and they are running scared because the people of Dunkley have expressed white-hot anger towards this government that has all the wrong priorities, is breaking its promises and isn't delivering on its commitments. Where is that $275 reduction in energy prices? Have you experienced it? I haven't experienced it. I'm pretty sure the people of Dunkley haven't experienced it. Where is this new year's resolution to bring down the cost of living that the Prime Minister had in January 2023? Yet the cost of living soared for the next 12 months while he concentrated on a voice to parliament that nobody voted for. The people of Dunkley certainly didn't vote for it, and now they're angry and Labor are desperate, so they've created this myth that the Liberal Party, of all parties, and the coalition are standing on the way of a tax cut. Save me! Save me! Save me! And now they've put together a motion to change hours so this can be done today, and we're still being criticised for it. This is just a nonsense. You are falling over your own logic.

The Labor Party will never stand for lower, simpler, fairer taxes. It never will. It's just not who they are. Only a coalition will stand for lower, simpler, fairer taxes, and we are happy to deliver them today, despite whatever the Prime Minister says and whatever nonsense he is spouting in the other place.