Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night we saw the budget delivered by a Labor government that is out of ideas. It's a budget bereft of any fiscal credibility. It is a budget that delivers no solutions to the challenges faced by Australians. It is a budget that offers no help to households and holds out no hope for business. It is a budget that will only perpetuate the malaise and stagnation felt across the Australian economy.

This budget does not get to grips with wasteful, out-of-control government spending. This year, real government spending will grow by six per cent and the economy only by 1.5 per cent. Government spending is at a record 27.4 per cent of GDP, the highest in four decades outside of COVID, and we've seen a $43 billion deterioration in the budget balance in a single year, with a decade of deficits to come.

This budget does not help households. Australians have suffered the largest fall in living standards in the developed world under Labor, and Labor is offering you 70c a day in 15 months time, at the same time that it plans to take at least five times as much as this from you by growing tax on your income over the next decade.

This budget does nothing to help business, to encourage investment or to address our national decline in productivity, and this budget does not address our urgent defence needs. At the same time we are being told we face the most dangerous and uncertain strategic environment in decades, we are spending as much on the NDIS as we are on our entire Defence Force.

Labor's fiscal plan is setting us up for a wasted decade. They have no ambition for Australia. Their sole ambition is for themselves: to retain power whilst presiding over a continued national decline. This is no future for Australia.

Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Queenslanders are good people, and we've been through a lot recently. We don't complain, but we do expect to get our fair share. After a decade of being ignored by the LNP, I'm really pleased to say that this budget is delivering for Queenslanders. In fact, we expect Queensland's funding to grow by $42.5 billion in 2028-29, and the budget revealed that we will be delivering $37.6 billion to Queensland in the next financial year.

What that means for Queenslanders is that every single taxpayer will receive a new tax cut. When you combine that with Labor's first round of tax cuts, the average benefit for Queensland taxpayers will be $2,494. Of course, Queenslanders will still receive savings from our cheaper medicines policy. Queenslanders are set to save $44 million with our cheaper medicines policy to reduce scripts down to $25. When it comes to students, students will be saving on their HELP debt, because we know that Queensland students will have an estimated $3.3 billion wiped from their loans—an average reduction of $5,357. We're also going to be opening 10 additional Medicare urgent-care clinics, including in Cairns North and across regional Queensland.

Importantly, we're also making the investments we need in infrastructure. Last night's budget delivered $7.2 billion to finally fix the Bruce, $225 million for the Barron River bridge, $200 million for the Rockhampton Ring Road, and $70 million for the Kennedy Developmental Road. And, of course, we've secured $87.5 million to support the Cairns Water Security Project. (Time expired)

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

They keep saying that we can't afford the things that we all need to lead a good life. They keep saying there's no money to support renters, to lift people on income support out of poverty, to put dental into Medicare, to wipe student debt or to make child care free. But do you know what? There is always money for the billionaires. There's always money for fossil fuel subsidies. There's always enough in the budget for corporate tax handouts and for tax breaks for property speculators, because the system has been rigged. It's rigged by the big corporations, by the billionaires and by the politicians who take their dirty political donations.

The 10 richest people in Australia own more wealth than the poorest five million combined. Think about that for a minute. While families are skipping meals, kids are sleeping in cars and our health system is crumbling, 10 people hoard more wealth than five million Australians combined. This is the system built by the old parties for the billionaires and the big corporations. They gutted public services, privatised government businesses for their corporate mates, slashed taxes for the rich, let banks run wild and let landlords run amok. The rich got richer and the old parties told the rest of Australia to be patient. Well, the Greens have had a gutful. We're calling time on this. We will cap rents, tax billionaires and make the big corporates pay their fair share of tax so we can build quality homes and a better quality of life for the millions of Australians who desperately need it. Change is possible, and people will vote for it. (Time expired)