Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A letter has been received from Senator McGrath:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

The 2024-25 Budget fails the key test to tackle inflation at the source, and confirms that Australians are poorer under an Albanese Labor Government, that Australians are paying the price for Labor's wrong priorities and bad decisions, and that it is Labor's homegrown inflation which is driving up the cost of living, energy, mortgages and grocery bills.

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with informal arrangements made by the whips.

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

I will start by reading a quote from the very eminent economist Chris Richardson. He said yesterday: 'My big ask of the budget was that it didn't poke the inflationary bear. I don't think it passed that test.' Not only did it poke the bear but it gave the bear a giant wedgie, it gave the bear a big blow of a trumpet in its ear and then it nicked the bear's honey—$315 billion worth of honey! That's the amount of money that this government is pumping into the economy, driving up the inflation rate. Labor don't understand basic economics.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you oppose the energy rebates?

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

You can hear all the whittering and cackling over there, but they don't understand how business operates and they don't understand how the economy operates. If you put $315 billion worth of extra spending into the economy, guess what will happen? It will push up inflation. This is what is happening in Australia at the moment. Everything is going up in price.

If the Labor politicians were to deign to leave this fear that is Canberra and go out into the real world, like we do in the coalition, they would understand that Australians are doing it tough. I just did a 10-day trip, going from Brisbane out to Gundy, Eromanga, Windorah, Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia and Mount Isa, then back down to Barcaldine, the birthplace of the Labor Party. You wouldn't know it there now. The Tree of Knowledge is dead, just like the modern Labor Party in terms of its understanding of working Australians and how the cost of living is hurting them. Guess what the No. 1 issue was that people spoke to me about in all of those communities in south-western, western and north-western Queensland? It was how expensive everything is under this Labor Party government.

This Labor Party government doesn't have a long-term plan, and the budget showed that last night. The budget last night was just a shopping list of spending items. It was like the Treasurer and the finance minister decided, 'We'll spend all this money on these items.' It was interesting watching the Treasurer last night and watching the look on the Prime Minister's face. He looked like an extra from The Muppet Show. He was sitting there, slightly stunned, going, 'I didn't know about this.' It looked like it was the first time the Prime Minister had heard what was in the budget. We have a prime minister who is semidetached from being prime minister. He is semidetached from understanding what is going on in Australia and actually understanding what needs to happen as prime minister. I mean, it is nice that the Prime Minister has decided to be in the country, and we should give him a golf clap for spending some time here and not racking up his frequent-flyer points on the VIP aircraft. But it would be nice to have a prime minister like Peter Dutton—someone who understands that inflation is the No. 1 issue facing Australia in terms of how we get our economy back on the right track.

The budget last night was a complete and utter dud when it came to helping Australians. This is how interesting it was. The Labor Party, with that budget last night—because they're very good at throwing out taxpayers' cash everywhere, instead of targeting the money to those who are doing it tough, instead of targeting it to the families across Australia—were happy to send money to some of the richest people in Australia. They were happy to spend money propping up big business. They were happy to spend money at the big end of town.

This Labor Party has forgotten regional Queensland; this Labor Party has forgotten suburban Brisbane—this Labor Party has forgotten everybody in Queensland, because all they care about is themselves. All they care about is doing whatever it takes to win elections, rather than helping those Australians who are doing it tough. And inflation is what is causing the toughness for Australians. It would've been nice to have a budget that fixed it, but last night's budget was a dud.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I could tell from that contribution that Senator McGrath is very upset—very upset that Australians are going to get a $300 rebate to help them with the cost of electricity. I can't understand why he'd want to hurt all those people in those towns that he's just mentioned. I'm going out to Broken Hill next week, on my rounds of the seat of Parkes, and I'm pretty sure everybody out there is going to be happy about the $300 rebate that will assist them with their electricity costs.

I know that yesterday—and I do want to wish him a happy birthday—was Senator McGrath's birthday. Clearly, he didn't get the budget he wanted, which was one to heap more pressure on Australian families. And we have to find out what they're going to say tomorrow night. Are they going to support the $300 energy rebate that every Australian household will get under Labor or are they going to oppose it? I ask because they're whingeing about how much everything costs, and they seem to be completely out of touch.

But I do want to thank the senator for bringing to the Senate's attention our recent budget. It's a fair budget. It's a balanced budget. It's a fundamentally good budget to assist people now, in their time of struggle, and also to create a future, an opportunity, for every Australian going forward.

Now, the fact is that Senator McGrath was elected to parliament in 2013 and hadn't seen a budget surplus since then, until Labor came in. It's a Labor budget surplus. No wonder he's a bit upset today. These consecutive budget surpluses are a feat of economic responsibility and prudence which were absolutely missing, very sadly, from the previous coalition government. So any claim that they might make about 'good economic management' has gone right out the window. They failed when they were in government, and now, in opposition, they're whingeing that Australia has a surplus and that we should dare to assist Australians by giving them some relief from their energy bills right now, in 2024. They had many treasurers when they were in government—sometimes they even had two blokes doing the one job!—but they never had the economic pedigree to achieve a surplus.

Inflation is a scourge that impacts all Australians, particularly those on low and fixed incomes. To those doing it tough right now: Labor sees you, we hear you, we understand the struggle that you face, and that is why this budget is responding to you in your time of need.

The budget provides tax relief to every working Australian, energy bill relief to all Australian households and targeted support to those on rental assistance and those who use the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. We'll also be giving rebates to those small businesses that are eligible, who have had the benefit of this assistance before.

The energy assistance that we gave was mentioned in estimates by Steven Kennedy, the head of Treasury, who made it very clear that Labor's investment in energy relief on the previous occasion drove down inflation by 0.5 per cent. Now there's a fact—on the public record—that is absolutely missing in the alternative universe in which the Liberal Party and National Party reside.

Inflation has halved since the Albanese government came into office and it's because of the policies in this budget that the inflation rate will lower by an additional 0.75 per cent. Treasury is now forecasting that Australia could now get back to the inflation rate target sooner—maybe even by the end of this year.

These numbers obviously mean a lot to politicians and the economists and financial types that talk about all this stuff and watch with great interest. Most Australians don't pay attention to a whole lot of that, but they are busy counting every dollar that they earn. They will benefit from the tax cuts that every taxpayer in Australia will get, which was not going be the case under those opposite. Australians are working hard to ensure they can feed and clothe their families.

I just want to put on the record that I was born in Western Sydney to young working-class Irish immigrants. My first home was in a caravan. My parents worked really hard and got a house, sold the house and had a period of renting—rent assistance would have been pretty handy—and I can tell you: the investment by the government of Gough Whitlam was responsible for putting in a sewer instead of a pan in the backyard of the house that we rented at Leumeah in one part of that journey. I was involved in the family business from the age of 11, doing the books and the typing. I know the relief this budget is going to bring to families, to working families, to small businesses and immigrant Australians. (Time expired)

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a budget handed down while the planet's climate is breaking down around us, while ecological collapse is underway and while many millions of Australians are being price-gouged by supermarkets and are facing skyrocketing rents. These are issues that demand serious government intervention. They demand action. They demand real, strong and urgent action.

That is not what we got from the Labor Party last night. This budget locks in economic inequality, and it exacerbates the breakdown of our climate and the collapse of ecosystems. Everyone understands that property developers and property speculators are driving up property prices and rents. Everybody understands that the supermarket duopoly are hiking prices to line their pockets and inflate their profits. Everyone understands that the gas cartel is profiting from the destruction of the planet's ecosystems and climate. But Labor has chosen to do nothing to rein in those corporate interests, and, of course, that is because Labor takes massive political donations from those same corporate interests.

Labor talks a big talk about the pain people are feeling at the supermarket checkout. Yet Labor's budget last night did not make price-gouging illegal. It did not introduce divestiture powers. It contained not one new measure and not one new dollar to put downward pressure on food and grocery prices.

Labor claims to understand the pain that renters are facing, and yet the budget last night did not freeze or cap rents. Instead, it committed tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks to property speculators.

Labor says it loves renewables, but actually Labor loves coal and gas. There was almost $50 billion worth of direct subsidies in the budget last night to encourage burning fossil fuels, and Labor has released a plan written by the gas cartel to make Australia reliant on gas expansion well beyond 2050. The budget also shows the danger of letting fossil fuel corporations write their own tax laws, because it shows that revenue from the PRRT is continuing to plummet, with $4.5 billion in writedowns on PRRT revenues in this budget and the last.

This budget should have contained action. It contains nothing of the kind.

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think we should all be a little shocked. For the first time ever, we actually saw someone in the Labor Party telling the truth. This was truly a Labor budget: more spending, more taxing and more deceit of the Australian people. In the midst of this Labor-exacerbated cost-of-living crisis, the solution that the Treasurer had was to keep spending, keep taxing and put out a couple of sugar hits to make everyone happy. We saw $315 billion of new spending at a time when we actually need restraint. After two years in office and three budgets, this government is no closer to dealing with its own homegrown inflation crisis, meaning that cost-of-living pressures for all Australians will continue and interest rates will be higher for longer. In fact, today, the average family with a mortgage is more than $35,000 worse off under this government. Isn't it great that at a time when the budget's actually forecasting unemployment to rise that the Albanese government thinks it's a great idea to employ an extra 36,000 additional bureaucrats in Canberra? Does anyone think they're getting a service that's 36,000 times better? I'm pretty sure you're not, and you're certainly not feeling that you've got value for money when you're $35,000 worse off.

A couple of months ago, I was made the shadow assistant minister for mental health, so I had a bit of a look. I wanted to see what was happening in mental health. This country is actually in the midst of a mental health crisis. Whilst it warranted a brief mention last night, this government, of course, failed to prioritise it as the issue that it is. Senator Brockman, I'm glad that you're here, because I actually just got an email from a clinical psychologist in the wheat belt of Western Australia. He said on the budget—and this has only just come through whilst I've been in the chamber—'As usual, mental health is dumbed down, degraded and dehumanised, with policy demoralising to those doing the work.' I don't think I could have summed it up better myself. I will try to cover off some more of that coming out of the West Australian wheat belt, but I think we know the priority this government puts on mental health and wellbeing. We know what they think of farmers. We certainly know what they think of farmers in WA, because they can't wait to kill off every industry over there. I don't think those new Akubras will be so welcome at beef week next week, but here we are.

We know that mental health was exacerbated through the pandemic and that there was a lot of anxiety and uncertainty induced. We know the more that this cost-of-living crisis goes on the more that anxiety is heightened and that important expenditure is becoming further and further out of reach for most families. We also know, like with many things, that early intervention is key in helping scores of young Australians who are exhibiting the first signs of mental illness. We need to make sure that they're supported so that their issues don't get worse. There was the in-principle digital mental health service, with no details, as per usual, about how it will function and what it will do. What there wasn't any money in the budget for and what those opposite seem to not understand is that there are some significant mental illnesses that can't be fixed via an app. They actually require significant interventions, both clinical and medical, to ensure that people are well supported in the community. But what did this government do when it came in? Quick as a flash, they cut the Better Access initiative from 20 sessions to 10. They removed vital services from those who need them most, and there was not a hint last night that they've done anything to bring them back or make them easier to access.

I understand that this isn't sexy stuff. There are no photo ops in Akubras for mental health. But this is something that affects every Australian. It permeates every part of our community. Every family is impacted in some way by mental health. Not all but a lot of families are impacted by significant mental illness. In New South Wales, Sydney has just had two attacks, both of which can, in a lot of ways, be attributed to significant mental illness. They've had lasting damage done to communities and families because those people have failed to be supported. But, yet again, this government is not interested. If it's not about renewable energy, it's not about their budget. This is something that we are seeing time and time again. We didn't see a mention of suicide, something that is a scourge in this country, because that is not the priority of this government. (Time expired)

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I read with some surprise that the Leader of the Opposition said this morning on television that this government was 'bequeathed a good set of books when they came into power'. There are people on magic mushrooms with a firmer grip on reality than that proposition. We are in a government that has had to clean up after almost a decade of Liberal profligacy and incapacity for economic management. They were a trillion dollars in debt with nothing to show for it in terms of social or economic reform—

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We had a triple A credit rating.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hughes, you were heard in silence. Please have the same respect for Senator Ayres.

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Gross debt this year will be $904 billion. That means—for those opposite—it's $152 billion lower. That means that we save, over the course of the next decade, $80 billion in interest payments. That means that it creates room in the budget to make smart decisions in the national interest. You would think that, after all the claims about economic capability on that side, symbolised by Mr Taylor and Mr Dutton, there would be a moment of self-reflection, and that the figure of a trillion dollars would have some impact, but no. What we have is the same campaign and the same nonsense, and it's all characterised by two things: negativity and complacency.

That's what characterises those opposite. Otherwise, how could you campaign about inflation—which, as Senator O'Neill said, rose to its dizzy heights when those opposite were in government—but vote against energy bill relief and measures to reduce the cost of child care? How could you feign concern about the cost of living but oppose Labor's reform of Mr Morrison's outdated stage 3 tax cuts, which now deliver under the Albanese government plan a tax cut for every single one of our PAYG taxpayers? That's 13.6 million Australians who will now get a tax cut. How could you do that unless your whole proposition was negativity and complacency? It's the only way you can claim that, when inflation peaks when you are in government, it's the result of an energy price shock from overseas, but now inflation is somehow home grown. It's silly, it's partisan and it's so see-through.

A failed decade of energy policy, in which you couldn't land a single energy policy, has driven costs up right through the energy system. You delivered utter chaos and incompetence that drove billions of dollars of investment in our energy system offshore, symbolised by nothing more than four gigawatts of electricity-generating capacity out of the system and only one gigawatt going back in as energy demands have grown. Now the answer from Mr Dutton is this nuclear hoax. It's all delivered and straightforward—except for a few little things! It's uncosted, Mr Dutton can't tell you where the nuclear power stations will be, and there's no modelling or understanding about the impact of billions and billions of dollars of extra cost in experimental nuclear power stations coming to a suburb near you. There's no explanation of how that will in any way deal with the energy challenges that Australia faces. They had the worst productivity growth for a decade, and there are no answers on that question except austerity politics and to slash, burn and cut wages. This is a ramshackle joke of an opposition, and they ought to be seen right through.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here are things you won't hear from anyone in the budget, except for One Nation because we've got the guts to say what you're thinking.

Firstly, guarantee cheap power—turn the coal-fired power stations back on, build more coal-fired power stations, and remove solar and wind subsidies. It's the only thing that can save us right now. Secondly, stop inflation. Stop quantitative easing—printing excess money. A trillion dollars was concocted during the COVID response, which is a major cause of the inflation we're still fighting today. Thirdly, we'll guarantee cheaper houses, cheaper rents and get young people into their first home. Don't just cut net overseas migration: start deporting. Prior to COVID, there were 1.9 million visa holders who needed housing and who were fighting Australians for a roof over their heads. That has increased to 2.3 million today, plus 400,000 tourists and others. Ten per cent of our population is on visas and needs extra housing. We will ban foreigners from buying Australian property. They're currently snapping up nearly one in 10 new Aussie homes.

Fourthly, get cheaper groceries—build dams and help farmers produce tonnes of fresh, healthy produce for Australians. Give farmers water and the right to use their land, and we'll never have to worry about grocery bills again. Fifth, use all of our natural resources we have right here for Australians first. There's no need to become a green superpower, and we never will. We're already an oil, gas, coal and uranium superpower. The government won't do this because some foreign, unelected organisation in Zurich or New York will claim that we're not complying with our international obligations.

Governments on both sides have forgotten that their first obligation is to Australians and no-one else. One Nation knows this. We'll put our trust in Australia's people and release them from the nanny state that tells them everything they can and can't do, which will enable people to abound and flourish. That's our promise of what would be a One Nation budget. We will always remind members of parliament to put Australians first.

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What did we hear from the Treasurer yesterday? We heard, 'I did my bit.' You have to ask yourself where Dr Chalmers got his degree from. You have to wonder whether it was the 'Uri Geller Institute of Advanced Spoon Bending'! I think that's where he might have got his doctorate from. We've had the finance minister stand up in this place and the Treasurer stand up in the other place and talk about how their budget is putting downward pressure on inflation. No economist that I have seen has actually agreed with them because it is against every principle of economic theory that a big-spending budget like this could in any way, shape or form put downward pressure on inflation. Chris Richardson, a highly respected economist, described it as 'poking the inflation bear'. Alan Kohler, who is certainly no hard right-wing economist, writes for the New Daily. He talked about how the electricity rebates in particular were inflationary in their effect and how the budget overall was inflationary in its effect.

What is in this budget is some big-spending slogans—I won't call them policies because I don't think there's much policy behind them. They are slogans. You couldn't make this stuff up: 'Future Made in Australia'. It's straight out of The Hollowmen or Utopia. And the biggest joke, which is a joke on the taxpayers of Australia, is that the first billion dollars of Future Made in Australia goes to a United States company, so Future Made in Australia has a very American tinge to it. Only Labor could come up with tax cuts that actually increase tax revenue over 10 years—tax cuts that add $28 billion of tax revenue to their coffers over the next 10 years. Only the Labor Party could come up with that.

This is a budget that ignores Middle Australia. It ignores all of Australia, but it particularly ignores the vast bulk of Australians who are feeling an extraordinary pressure on their household budgets and on their small businesses. They've seen their costs skyrocket, whether it's the cost of inputs for a small business or the cost of buying the groceries and filling up the car for a household. They've seen those costs just go through the roof over the period of this government. At the time same time, they've seen their interest rates and their interest rate repayments also go through the roof. For a typical household, it's anywhere north of $15,000 a year in annual interest repayment increases.

These are real people. This is real money. This is a government that has not got a clue on either how to put downward pressure on interest rates or how to help those struggling families out there who are doing it really tough. We talk to them every day. We hear the stories of people having to make hard decisions about whether they're going to cancel their kids' sport this year, whether they're going to decide to wind back on outings with their family, whether they're going to be able to employ that extra person at the cafe, whether they're going to have to put off the last person they hired at the local supermarket or whether they're going to have to think again about taking on that apprentice or that trainee. These are the stories we hear every day.

For those opposite to come into this place and make the completely unfounded claim—a claim contradicted by literally every economist who has been out there on the budget—that this budget in some way puts downward pressure on interest rates is just a nonsense. (Time expired)

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Senate will now consider the proposal from Senator McKim.