MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Senator DEAN SMITH (Western Australia) (16:23): Labor senators from Western Australia often come to this chamber proud of the fact that, in the 2022 and 2025 federal elections, Western Australians endorsed Labor. The challenge for WA senators from the Labor Party today is to explain why it was necessary last night for the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and Jim Chalmers, the Treasurer, to turn their backs on WA voters?
Why was it necessary for Labor to break promises they gave to Western Australian voters? This is a budget of broken promises, higher taxes, more debt, lower living standards and fewer homes for Australians. The budget is a document that has turned its back on the desperate needs facing Western Australia and families and businesses today.
Let's remind ourselves that it was just one year ago when the Prime Minister was asked whether he would make changes to housing and other taxes. What did the Prime Minister say? He told people he that he wouldn't make changes and the proof would be in the pudding.
The pudding last night was a blatant tax raid and an assault on ambition dressed up as ambitious reform, leaving all Australians worse off because this is a government that cannot manage the economy and cannot manage the economy at times of crisis. I encourage voters to go to one book just to find the litany of lies and broken promises in last night's budget.
That one book is what's called the budget strategy and outlook. At page 158, you will find revelations that actually fewer homes will be built under Labor's plan. At page 159, you will find that, under Labor's plan, rents will increase.
At page 256, you will find the shocking detail that Australia's net debt levels will tip over $1 trillion, peaking at $1.2 trillion. That's an important revelation because debt is a tax on future generations. Those future generations are young people today, but they will be families and business owners into the future.
Then, to demonstrate that this is in fact the highest-taxing and highest-spending government in decades, you need only to look at the historic data tables at the back of this volume. You can start at page 437. That is the reality of the situation.
You can't trust Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and you can't trust Jim Chalmers. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Polley ): I just remind you to use, specifically for people in the other place, their correct titles. Senator DEAN SMITH: The budget has cemented this Albanese Labor government's position as the highest-taxing government in our history.
Last night, we saw Jim Chalmers whack Australians with an extra $50 billion in taxes over the next four years, taxes which include $15 billion in higher personal income taxes. We saw a housing tax, a small business tax and a family savings tax. On housing, the budget papers confirm it.
Labor's housing taxes will reduce the supply of homes by 35,000 over the decade. They reveal that Labor's plan will push rental costs up. On deficits and debt, they say that Labor cannot manage the economy, because we are facing a decade of deficits worth $150 billion and a net debt of $1.25 trillion.
The yearly interest bill on that debt alone will hit more than $42 billion, or $80,000 every minute. The most alarming revelation, of course, is that more than $9 out of every $10 of improvement in this budget over the next five years is, in fact, due to changed economic conditions and not the blood, sweat and tears of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Labor Treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
This is a budget of ruin. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Smith, I did remind you to use people's titles and you repeatedly did not. So I'll just remind senators that you should be using people's correct titles.