Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026, Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026

Ms LANDRY (Capricornia—Chief Nationals Whip) (20:13): I rise today to speak on tax reform. For families and small businesses in Capricornia, this is not an abstract debate in Canberra; it's about whether people who work hard can get ahead, whether a pay rise still means something at the kitchen table and whether regional Australians are rewarded for effort or punished for it.

Across Central Queensland, people are doing everything right, but they feel like they are running harder just to stand still. This is the reality of Labor's economy, and that is why this debate matters. In Rockhampton, Yeppoon, Emu Park, Sarina, Mirani, Moranbah and Dysart, people are not asking for more spin.

They are asking for relief. They are asking why every time they get ahead a little, Canberra reaches further into their pockets. They ask why families who save are treated as a revenue source, why renters are hit with higher costs, why first home buyers are being priced out and why small businesses are expected to carry more of the load.

Labor's answer is always the same: more tax, more complexity and more excuses. The coalition's answer is different. We believe that people who work hard, save hard and take risks should be backed, not bled dry.

Bracket creep is one of the clearest examples. Australians understand it because they live it. Inflation pushes wages up on paper.

Workers move into a higher tax bracket, and the government takes a bigger slice, even though their buying power has barely improved. It is a quiet tax hike built into the system, and Labor relies on it. Labor says it wants to help with the cost of living, while benefiting when inflation drags workers into higher tax over time.

This is not fairness. It is government balancing its books on the backs of people trying to keep up. The coalition's approach is the opposite.

We believe the tax system should reward work not punish it. That is why the coalition's tax-back guarantee would index income tax thresholds to inflation so Australians are not taxed more simply because prices have gone up. It is a structural reform not a temporary patch.

It would protect around 85 per cent of income earners from 2028-29, with a relief of about $250 in year 1, growing to more than $1,000 a year by year 4, before extending to all taxpayers. Labor's model said government should quietly benefit when workers are dragged into higher tax brackets. The coalition's model says that, if Australians earn more because prices have risen, they should keep more of what they earn.

This is the difference between a government that manages decline and an opposition that wants to restore reward for effort. Let us be clear. The bill includes the working Australians tax offset and the $1,000 standard deduction.

The coalition supports those measures, but they sit beside a much bigger agenda of higher taxes on savings, investment and enterprise. Schedule 1 changes capital gains tax. Schedule 2 changes negative gearing, and buried in the broader agenda is a tax hit on family savings and discretionary trusts.

This is Labor's pattern: give a little with one hand and take much more with the other. Labor offers a headline-friendly offset while designing a tax system that reaches deeper into people's futures. The coalition will support genuine relief, but we will not pretend these small sweeteners cancel out the wider assault on aspiration.

This is the fundamental difference between Labor and the coalition. Labor sees the economy from the top down—more tax, more redistribution and more dependence on government. The coalition sees it from the ground up, built by workers, families, investors, small business owners and self-starters who take risks and create opportunity.

Labor's instinct is to tax the very behaviour Australia needs more of savings, investing, building and backing yourself. The coalition's instinct is to remove barriers, reward effort and create the conditions for growth. Labor manages decline.

The coalition backs aspiration. For the people I represent in Capricornia, that difference is not theoretical. It is the worker in a mining camp doing overtime and seeing more of it disappear.

It's the nurse or aged-care worker picking up extra shifts because the bills do not stop. It is a tradie paying more for fuel, materials and insurance. It is the cafe owner on the Capricornia coast working weekends just to keep the doors open.

It's the family in Rockhampton looking at a pay rise and realising it still will not stretch far enough, because groceries, power, rent and mortgage repayments have all gone up. Labor's answer is more intervention and more tax. The coalition's answer is to restore the confidence that work will pay, saving will matter and enterprise will be worth the risk.

The contrast is just as stark on housing. Labor says its tax changes are about fairness and first home buyers, but the government's own material points in the opposite direction—fewer incentives to invest, lower confidence and fewer homes. When you tax something, you get less of it.

If you tax housing investment more heavily, you get less housing investment. Restrict negative gearing and change the capital gains rules at the same time, and you do not create affordability. You shake confidence, reduce supply and tighten the market.

Labor recalls that reform. In reality, it is a wrecking ball through the very investment that helps deliver rental stock and new housing. The coalition's position is straightforward.

We oppose the capital gains tax changes and the negative gearing changes. If these measures become law under Labor, a coalition government will repeal them. Repeal is only part of the answer.

We also need common sense on housing and migration, investment in enabling infrastructure and a clear focus on supply rather than punishment. When governments get housing policy wrong, renters and young Australians cop it first. Labor talks about intergenerational fairness, but young people are being hit from every angle.

They rent for longer, face higher rents when investment leaves the market, and then cop a bigger tax hit when they try to build a deposit. That is not fairness; that is intergenerational betrayal. The same contrast runs through small business policy.

Across Capricornia, small businesses are under enormous pressure. They are battling higher insurance, freight wages, rent, power bills and input costs, and many are still rebuilding confidence after years of strain. But Labor still sees a chance to take more.

These tax changes reach into the retirement plans, succession plans and investment decisions of the people who have done the hard work, taken the risks and employed local people. In regional Australia, a small business is often a family's life savings. It's their retirement plan.

It's their legacy. It's the first job for young people in the community. Labor says the government is entitled to a bigger stake of that.

The coalition says a life's work should be respected, not raided. The coalition's alternative is to back the self-starters, not punish them with lower, simpler and more predictable tax settings. That includes making the $50,000 instant asset write-off permanent for eligible small businesses so that when a tradie buys a ute, a cafe upgrades equipment or a contractor invests in tools, they can grow with confidence.

It also means backing startups and entrepreneurs rather than treating them as an easy source of revenue in an economy increasingly shaped by technology and innovation. Australia should be attracting ambitious founders and skilled workers, not driving them offshore by taxing risk and claiming the upside. The coalition wants an economy that rewards initiative.

Labor is building one that punishes it. At its core, this debate is about what kind of country we want to be—one where government sees every pay rise, every investment gain, every family asset and every small business success as another opportunity to tax; or one that still believes in aspiration, reward for effort and the idea that, if you work hard, save, invest and build something, you should be able to get ahead.

Labor's approach is built on broken promises, higher taxes and the belief that government should always take more. The coalition's alternative is lower taxes, lower inflation, and an economy designed to back the self-starters of this nation, not kneecap them. We will fight these toxic taxes tooth and nail.

We support relief where it's genuine, but we reject the broader tax raid on families, renters, first home buyers, small businesses and young Australians. In Capricornia, people do not want carve-outs for bad policy. They want a government that trusts them, backs them and gets out of their way.

The people of Central Queensland know the value of hard work, self-reliance and backing yourself. They deserve a tax system and an economy that reflects those values, and the coalition will always stand for an Australia where effort is rewarded, aspiration is encouraged, and the next generation is given more opportunity, not less.