Fatima Payman (WA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to give my budget reply because the allocated time has been scrapped, as this Labor government is too busy trying to gag debate and ram eight bills through a guillotine motion this evening—so much for transparency and so much for democracy. We're living through a cost-of-living crisis, a climate emergency, a housing disaster and a world on the brink of deeper conflict, and what does Treasurer Jim Chalmers hand us? He hands us a pre-election pamphlet dressed up as a budget. Let's be clear: this was not a budget of vision. It was a budget of fear—fear of upsetting vested interests, fear of telling the truth and fear of spooking voters with the scale of the challenge we face. Instead of delivering structural reform, we got bandaids. Instead of building a future, we got a bribe: $5 a week in tax cuts. That's not relief. That's an insult. And don't forget that $5 is across the board, including for those who need it the least, like the wealthy and people in this chamber. This government is too scared to truly rebalance the scales for the needy.

Who misses out entirely in this budget? It's full-time students working part time, the young people hustling to get by, drowning in HECS debt and rising rents. There is nothing for them. I spent years in Young Labor and one term as Young Labor president. I ran the meetings, moved and seconded motions for national platform, prepared for state and national conferences and heard the demands from young members to push for real, brave reform. Do you want to know what they want from their Labor Party, what I wanted? They want action on negative gearing. They want the capital gains tax discount gone. They want franking credits reined in. They want real climate action, not gas expansion. They want big corporations taxed properly. They want AUKUS scrapped. They want a sovereign wealth fund to safeguard our future. They want a gas reservation policy that puts Australians first. They want welfare payments that are raised to livable standards. They want offshore detention to end. They want a foreign policy that's truly independent, not just a rubber stamp for Washington.

All the Labor senators in this chamber know this to be true. These are bold, progressive, commonsense reforms, and—would you believe it?—every single one of them is what Australia's Voice is fighting for. It's so obvious that Labor can't even deliver what's already in their own party platform, let alone take the bold steps needed to meet this moment. They talk big on fairness, then cave to donors. They talk big on security, then sell our sovereignty to AUKUS. They talk big on care, then leave people on poverty payments. This is a budget with no backbone, no direction and no long-term plan. To my former Young Labor crew out there: you know this isn't good enough. You know this isn't the bold, progressive Labor of the old. Don't be scared to tell them.

Jim Chalmers had a once-in-a-generation opportunity—