Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2025-2026, Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Senator KOVACIC (New South Wales) (19:13): This government is running deficits because record levels of revenue are being outstripped by record levels of spending and record levels of spending growth. What does that mean? That means this government is taxing you more.

You are paying more in tax, and this government is then spending that money. This is not the restraint that the Treasurer talks about, and this is not how we build a strong future for the generations that come after us. We are setting up the next generation to pay off even more of this government's debt.

We are setting up this generation to not even be able to own their own homes—just pay off the debt of this generation. Earlier today, we had some discussion around the five per cent home deposit scheme, and I heard a couple of the senators on the other side talk about how groundbreaking that is for young Australians. It would be if there were any houses to buy, but there are no houses to buy.

When you spend government funds, you are spending taxpayer funds. The government has no money. That actually comes from taxpayers.

What the government has decided to do is to effectively guarantee mortgages so that only a five per cent deposit is required, with no income caps and no oversight measures whatsoever, but they haven't done anything about the supply side of housing—nothing at all—which means we have more people coming into the market for the same number of homes. I'm not an economist, but I know what's going to happen next: the prices of those homes are going to go up because the supply hasn't increased but the demand has.

We have yet another problem in relation to that: the misconduct of the CFMEU in this country and its impact on housing supply. The handbrake that it creates on the supply of homes in this country when young people are not just not able to buy their own homes but have to line up in tens, twenties and thirties to rent a home is entirely unacceptable. And then those opposite sit there and say: 'We're doing a good job.

We put the CFMEU into administration.' The administration isn't working. We've all seen that over the last few weeks in the media and over the last few months. But guess what.

The Australian taxpayer is paying for that administration. Again—ka-ching!—it is some more spending that doesn't deliver outcomes. None of us have a problem with spending that delivers outcomes—spending on health, housing, critical infrastructure—but we do have a problem with wasting money that then creates debt for future generations.

The RBA is increasing caution on reducing interest rates in part because of this government's high spending. It is hurting all Australians, but it is especially hurting young Australians. It is hurting them in every possible way and leaving them the debt burden of the decisions of this government, and that is not okay.

Both Ken Henry and Philip Lowe have called for spending restraint, with Philip Lowe noting in August: After COVID, we haven't really got back to a clearly articulated framework for decision-making with fiscal policy. It seems to be that, where there is need, we will spend. That's not how you run a country.

You need to make decisions about where to best place taxpayers' money. Every dollar in the budget, every dollar that's dealt with in the appropriation bills, belongs to the Australian taxpayers. They don't belong to government.

Those of us in this place, particularly the government, are custodians of that money. We don't own it. It's not ours to do with as we please.

Senator Hume made a comment earlier about what the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Michele Bullock, said about Australia needing to make hay while the sun shines. That's her warning to this government about what they should do in terms of the record revenue they are taking in, but they're not doing that. This government is spending the money that should be used to invest in our future.

Let me be clear: there is a big difference between spending and investment. They are two very different things. Australians deserve a government that actually knows the difference between those two things, and it is not fair to any Australian that they are paying more and more out of their personal incomes in tax to pay for that spending.

That's part of the reason this government is now presiding over the biggest collapse of living standards in the developed world. I will repeat that. Labor has presided over the biggest collapse in living standards in the developed world, here in Australia, while fuelling an addiction to spending that is driving up the cost of living and leaving a $1.2 trillion debt bomb for the next generation, for my children and my grandchildren and the children of others in this place and outside of this place.

As Senator Hume said, it doesn't go away. Somebody has to pay for it, and we can't look the other way, think it's not our problem and kick that can down the road. But Australians today are also paying the price.

They are paying the price through higher mortgages; they are paying the price through higher power bills, higher grocery prices and higher rents; and they will pay the price tomorrow as Labor locks in a decade of deficits and intergenerational debt. Intergenerational debt is the debt that the future generations will pay for the decisions of this government when they are unable to buy the homes that this government hasn't been able to create supply for.

What are we creating for our future generations? What are we giving them? What have we done to that social contract where we hand over something better than what we got?

We are not doing that anymore. We are handing over a worse outcome to future generations, and we should be ashamed of that. This government should be ashamed of that.

I talked about an increase in mortgages. We've had, I think, three rate cuts under this government. We've had 12 rate increases.

I often see the celebration of those three rate cuts. The average Australian with a mortgage is still paying $1,800 a month more. That's a lot of money.

That's over $20,000 a year that people have had to change their lives to be able to pay to keep their homes. That's a big deal. That's not something for us to ignore.

And that's only if people are lucky enough to have been able to buy their own home to be able to own their own home. We actually have to think about those impacts. But let's think about young people who can't afford to buy their own home—for a number of different reasons, but now because the prices of those homes have gone up because we just don't have the supply.

Whilst they are trying to do that, they are paying 39 per cent more for their electricity; they are still paying 21 per cent more for rent while trying to save for that home; they're paying 16 per cent more for food; they're paying 15 per cent more for health; and, if they are still learning or studying or improving their skills, they are paying 17 per cent more for that as well.

This is unacceptable, and every minute we are paying $50,000 just on interest on Labor's debt. Every dollar that we pay for interest is a dollar that we cannot spend on the safety net or on Medicare or on schools or on hospitals. This is not sustainable, and it needs to stop.

The coalition will be guided by our beliefs in freedom, choice, aspiration and enterprise. We will restore fiscal discipline to this country; we will reward effort and encourage enterprise; we will keep government focused and targeted; we will act to deliver intergenerational fairness so young Australians can afford to buy their own homes and don't have to pay off the debts of this generation; and we will back a smaller, enabling government.