MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (15:16): What do you call someone who raids your wallet, then gives it back and says that you should say thank you for the privilege? The answer is the Albanese government, because what we've seen in the last budget is a government that has broken a series of promises to the Australian community about the taxes that they 'would not introduce'.
They got over an election. They got over the need for a democratic test to be held to account, and they've turned around and betrayed the Australian community. When they've done that, they've turned around and said to the Australian people, 'You should thank us for giving us for giving back some of your income tax,' completely deceiving and ignoring the fact that they are actively inflating out any income tax that is offered.
We saw this at the last election, where they offered tax cuts. They were legislated but had been annihilated within six months from the Treasurer's active inflation agenda. We're seeing exactly the same thing in the bills before the parliament right now.
They like to boast that they're somehow cutting income taxes. They come into this chamber and say the Australian people and all the members in the chamber should vote with them. But the real truth is they're going to be wiped out by inflation.
We on this side of the House understand the silent thief that is inflation—how it corrodes living standards, how it destroys the effort and the savings of the middle class and how those who work hard to get ahead and save their money are attacked by it. That's one of the critical reasons that this government's economic policy approach is wrong. We've seen in the national accounts today that inflation is part of a persistent problem corroding living standards.
While the government likes to boast about what they're achieving in terms of nominal wages, the truth is that real wages are going backwards under this government. There's only one way to fix it, and that is to turn around and stop inflation and to put the handbrake on governments using income tax as a silent method to raise more revenue and take advantage of inflation.
We call it bracket creep. Call it whatever you want. It is inflation that simply corrodes real wages and justifies taking more income tax from the Australian people.
That's why the Leader of the Opposition, in his budget reply speech correctly said we will introduce a tax back guarantee. The tax back guarantee turns around to Australians and says, 'If you vote for us, every year, if inflation increases, we will make sure that money is returned to your hip pocket.' We won't turn around and use the silent thief of inflation to take away your income.
That's what the Albanese government is doing. They like to crow. They like to claim.
They like to smug the idea that they can take away more of Australia's income while saying they're going to hand it back to the Australian people through modest tax cuts. The truth is they're just acting in a silent-thief-like manner towards Australia's income. Our tax back guarantee is focused on making sure that every year we give a pathway for Australians who experience inflation to get more of their income back and we don't use the income tax system as a silent thief to take away.
We'll do it by making sure that every year, as inflation data comes out, it will be returned in your annual tax return. It will be a conscious choice. This matters because we know, based on the reputation of the Albanese government, they say one thing before an election and they do something different after.
Every single year, the tax back guarantee will be put to the test. When we're in government and when Labor's in government, and they will have to choose whether they continue to support returning the money of Australian people back to the Australian people. Now what do you think is going to happen?
Do you think that every year Labor is going to turn around and support returning more money to the hip pockets of Australian people taken by inflation? We know the history on this, which is that, when the Labor government runs out of money, they come after yours. I think it was the member for Wannon or the member for Gippsland who just said they can't stop their spending addiction.
They have an economic model, and it's based on stoking the inflation. It's based on then taxing the inflation. And then it's about spending the inflation.
Wash, rinse, repeat. No matter what happens, they always find a way to inflate the economy and corrode living standards so long as it means more of the hardworking income of Australians is taxed out of existence and back into the hands of the government to fill their spending addiction. We don't believe in that vision for the future.
We don't believe in a vision for Australia where people apply their hard work and effort, where hard work is put in to build out the betterment of a business, a community or of course the foundations of a country just to be taxed away by a Labor government. We believe in an Australia where money belongs in your hip pocket if you've earned it. We believe in an Australia where hard work pays off, where people have control of their own lives and where they're respected.
We believe in an Australia where people will work hard and they will be able to keep their money and, if inflation comes along as a silent thief, we will return that money to the Australian people. We want to empower families. We want their freedom to choose.
We want them to be able to decide how to grow the opportunity for themselves and their families and their communities and we want particularly to back small business, because the inflation crisis is not just one for small, for families and households; it's one for small business. I know it falls on deaf ears on the other side of this chamber. I know so many Labor members simply cannot comprehend what it is like to back yourself, to invest in your future, to employ Australians and to be able to dare big dreams.
It's why the Prime Minister during question time couldn't answer whether he wanted more Australians to be successful next year than were this year. We back Australians to get ahead. We believe that, when Australian families are doing well, the nation is doing well.
We don't believe that, when Canberra is doing well, Australian people are doing well. It's the other way around. Particularly for the self-starters of this country, particularly those who backed themselves in small business—we have your back every step of the way.
The one thing we will stress is you need hope right now. We need hope. We know, after the latest budget, that all the government is seeking to do is suffocate and punch down on people in small business in the most disgraceful way.
The Labor government's legacy already is record small-business insolvencies. Think about that—a record number of livelihoods, a record number of Australians who've backed themselves to get ahead, a record number of those who are employing people in communities who have had record insolvencies under this government. It is not something to be proud of, but they are suffering under the punitive measures of inflation and the cost-of-small-business crisis, which is leading them to an environment where they are looking desperately gasping for air to get ahead.
I was recently in the Goldstein electorate in a local cafe down in Black Rock, and that was the message. And anywhere any of the members on this side of the chamber go, they hear the same stories—small businesses desperate to get ahead. They're often paying their staff before themselves, paying their suppliers before themselves and wondering whether it's worth going on.
We know Labor doesn't care about small businesses, and we know that they don't care if they collapse. They just want to triumphant of big capital, big unions and big business, and they can just sit on top of a big government and pull the levers and dictate the terms. But we don't believe in an Australia like that.
We believe in one where people work hard and keep their money. If they back themselves, if they create a small business, if they seek out growth and opportunity and if they work hard, they should be able to get ahead, and their money is their money. We don't want it any more than is necessary to secure the nation and to ensure that we give the next generation of Australians their best chance.
That is not the approach of the current government, and you see this in their approach in taxation. They spend to inflate the economy. They then tax it.
They then spend it again and continue to repeat the cycle. And the consequence now—and it's plain to see—is that Australians are having their incomes eaten away and their real wages eaten away by bracket creep. We need to make sure that a tax-back guarantee is legislated that empowers Australians to keep their money.
A tax-back guarantee exists so that, when the government over taxes, it goes back into the hip pockets of Australians so they can be control of their destinies, their futures, their families and their communities and build the strength and opportunity that this great country can deliver. And it's only with the tax-back guarantee under a Taylor government that we will build the strength of Australia.