Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026, Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026
Mr CHESTER (Gippsland—Deputy Leader of the National Party) (17:18): I must say at the outset, Australians just want their country back. When you go out and talk to people in our communities, they are angry; they are frustrated. They've been left behind by a prime minister who promised to govern for all Australians, and left behind by a prime minister who said, infamously: 'My word is my bond.' That is what the Prime Minister told the Australian people.
In this bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026, we see exactly what this Prime Minister's promises are worth, because, after four years of the Albanese government, Australians are worse off, and our country is heading in the wrong direction. The most recent Mood of the Nation study found that 66 per cent of Australians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.
And that has all been on Prime Minister Albanese's watch. Who could blame people for not feeling confident about the future of our nation when they see a bill like this before the House today? They've experienced a declining standard of living.
Australians have seen 15 interest rate rises under this government. The average mortgage holder is now paying more than $25,000 extra in interest payments since the Albanese government came to power in 2022. They may have turned on the TV on budget night hoping for just a little bit of good news, hoping that maybe this federal budget would help them out, and what they found out is that they had been misled and deceived completely by this prime minister in the lead-up to the 2025 election.
Call me old-fashioned, because, in the seven elections I've contested, what's occurred is that the Labor Party puts forward policies, the Liberals and Nationals put forward, policies, the Greens put forward policies, and then the Australian people vote on it. They get to make a decision. That's called old-fashioned democracy.
But what this prime minister has done with this bill, with this deception, with this absolute deceit to the Australian people, has thrown democracy out the window, and the only plan they have for the Australian people is higher taxes. What I've got to say will come as a shock to the members opposite who have been in here today in 90-second statements and who also spoke on this bill.
They've got up and they've said just how good the budget is and how good these changes are going to be. If it's so good for Australians, why wouldn't you want Australians to vote for it? Member for Dobell, if it were so good, why didn't you go to the election and say, 'This is my plan: increase capital gains tax and destroy the negative gearing system.
Vote for me'? Why not take it to the Australian people? But, no, they didn't do that.
They didn't do that at all. They whispered amongst themselves about 'when we get elected, we'll do something else' and 'when we get elected, let's see what we can get through the parliament' and 'don't tell those mugs out in the public called the Australian people' and 'don't possibly let them vote on our policies'. That is exactly what they've done.
They've snuck into government on a foundation of deceit, deception and trickery, so much so that this is an illegitimate government. This government is based on a fundamental deceit and misleading of the Australian people because they did not have the guts or the strength of their convictions to say: 'These are our policies. We want to declare war on aspiration, and you should vote for us.' If they were so confident about these policies, then the member for Dobell and every other member in this place would have campaigned on these policies, but not one of them did.
The Prime Minister told us in his own press conference: 'I've answered that question more than 50 times. There will be no changes to negative gearing, no changes to capital gains tax.' Old honest member for Grayndler said, 'I won't change those things,' and what's he done? Walked in here with the Treasurer and committed the greatest deception that I've seen in my 18 years in this place, because, at every other election that I've been to, the members opposite have had the guts to put their policies before the Australian people.
Remember, in 2019, the changes we're debating now were the policy positions of the former member for Maribyrnong, Bill Shorten. These were his policies. The member for McMahon very helpfully said, 'If you don't like our policies, don't vote for us.' There you go.
The Australian people, given the choice on these policies, on this legislation, voted against them in 2019, but yet we're here today confirming Labor's great deceit. This is a government which is elected on broken promises and on trickery. The Prime Minister, in his own words, in his own words, acknowledged the absolute folly of his position after the federal election in May last year.
The Prime Minister said: We have a mandate for what we took to the Australian people. That is our mandate. Think about that.
That is a direct quote from the Prime Minister in May last year. The Prime Minister, in his own words, admitted that he doesn't have a mandate for this broken promise and the higher taxes he announced in the federal budget. I'm glad to see the member for Spence is here, because I'm sure the member for Spence is going to stand up and say: 'Actually, I campaigned strongly on this.
I campaigned on these capital gains tax reforms. I campaigned on this negative gearing. I campaigned on this attack on trust, because I'm an honest member for Spence.' That's what the member for Spence is going to say.
He's going to say, 'I campaigned on all these things, and I'm very proud of my decision to do so.' I'll wait to hear him say that, because he'll be the first member opposite that did campaign on it. But I don't think he'll say that, member for Nicholls. If this prime minister sets a standard where he can't just be honest with the Australian people, why would we expect his caucus to be honest?
This is a prime minister who has set the standard saying, 'We have a mandate for what we took to the Australian people. That is our mandate,' and he has no mandate for the changes before the House today. The Prime Minister also told Australians: My word is my bond. … I believe that when you go to an election and you make commitments, you should stick to them.
Wow. That sounds a lot like democracy. That sounds a lot like what I talked about a couple of minutes ago.
In all the elections I've contested, members of Labor, Liberals, Nationals and Greens put forward their policies, and the Australian people voted. The Prime Minister said: My word is my bond. … I believe that when you go to an election and you make commitments, you should stick to them. He also said: I will lead a government that keeps its promises.
Why would any single Australian in the lead-up to the next election believe a single word this prime minister or this treasurer says when they say, 'We rule out death taxes,' or, 'We rule out some other tax'? They've broken their promises so fundamentally with the Australian people that the biggest deficit in Australia is not in the budget; it's the deficit of trust between the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Australian people.
Why would anyone believe a word these people say when they've fundamentally broken the contract between the people of Australia and their elected representatives? If you can't believe a candidate—in this case, the leader of the country—who said, 'I've told you 50 times. I won't be changing that,' and if you can't believe a commitment as blatant as that, what can you believe from the Australian Labor Party?
What single promise at the next election can you believe from the Australian Labor Party? The political trickery in this bill is very well understood. There are a couple of elements in this bill that the coalition would be very happy to vote for, but, by forcing the parliament to consider the bill in its entirety, we cannot condemn Australians to this deceit and deception.
This is just more political trickery by a Labor Party to try and force unrelated issues together to try and somehow wedge the coalition into a position. They think they're going to make some political hay in the future, because, with this prime minister, it's always about the political tricks, about the deceit, about the tactics in this place and nothing about the Australian people, where there is a fundamental breach of trust being committed, which this prime minister will never live down.
On this side of the House—and it was pointed out during the budget-in-reply speech by the opposition leader—We have a better plan, a better way to restore aspiration to the Australian people. The opposition leader, in his budget-in-reply speech, explained how the coalition would help everyday Australians deal with the insidious impact of inflation and bracket creep.
We want to restore aspiration and force Canberra to live within its means, rather than raid the pockets of hard-working Australians through bracket creep. Bracket creep is a hidden tax which increases when inflation increases. Wage growth just pushes your income into a higher tax bracket, and you're no better off at the end of the day anyway.
Even though your real purchasing power hasn't changed, a larger portion of your money actually goes to the government, and Canberra celebrates. It means that the government takes more tax every year from everyday Australians without needing to change the laws. The coalition, if elected at the next election, will introduce a new tax-back guarantee, and this will index tax thresholds to inflation so Australians keep more of what they earn.
It will deliver relief of around $250 in the first year and more than $1,000 per year by year four. It means no more yearly inflation tax rises. This is real tax reform.
We're going to take the novel approach of having a policy position, taking it to the Australian people, giving them a vote and letting them decide what they think is in the best interest of the Australian nation, rather than the approach adopted by the member for Grayndler and the Treasurer of deceit, deception and trickery to try to win government. The position taken by the coalition has been well received by the Business Council chief executive, Bran Black.
He said: Indexing tax brackets is good reform and will help ensure workers are not paying higher tax rates simply because of inflation and wage growth. Respected economist Saul Eslake said that the indexation of tax brackets and resulting automatic tax reductions stopped government's using the cash to sweeten voters at election time. He said: It makes governments honest and stops them being able to offer tax reductions before the next election.
That goes to the core of the bill before the chamber today. What a novel idea making governments honest is! The Labor Party has demonstrated since the election and, most recently, through the budget and the bill before the chamber today that its only plan for regional Australia is to tax them more.
The overwhelming majority of those opposite have never actually run a small business, and it shows in this policy before the chamber. I acknowledge, member for Nicholls, that they may not have visited too many family owned enterprises, but they've certainly done a picket line out the front of quite a lot of them themselves. They've picketed lots of small businesses, but have they actually run a small business?
No, not many of them at all have any direct experience when it comes to small business, and it's demonstrated by the measures in the budget. What Australians are telling me is that they're actually sick of business as usual in Canberra, and they're sick of Labor's broken promises. It's tough out there right now for farmers, for our small-business people and for Australian families.
What does the Prime Minister do as Australians are feeling the pinch of cost-of-living pressures and a reduced standard of living? Well, the Prime Minister decides he will make it more difficult for Australians to build their own wealth, get ahead and maybe transfer their business or farm to the next generation. The capital gains tax changes in this legislation, presented to the parliament without any mandate by those opposite, make it more costly and complicated for older farmers seeking to manage their succession planning with their children.
We on this side of the House want to see more farming families. We want to see more family owned farms and properties on the land, providing the food and fibre our nation needs. But these changes inevitably will lead to more corporate farms, and our farmers are justifiably worried about the changes to the capital gains tax arrangements.
The minister was asked about this in question time, and she clearly doesn't understand her own government's changes, which represent a broken promise to all Australian farmers. The Victorian Farmers Federation has publicly warned that more than 50 per cent of farmers will not receive a CGT concession and will pay massively higher tax bills when transferring farm ownership to their children.
Their fear is that some farmers will have to sell off some of their land just to pay the capital gains tax bill created by this government. We have the National Farmers' Federation raising similar concerns, and we don't have any answer from the minister about whether the 85,000 Australian farmers will be worse off under the government's broken promise on capital gains tax.
The minister just constantly dodges the question. We want to know if there has been any modelling. If the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry wasn't consulted, how does the government even know what the impact will be?
Our farmers are world class for a good reason. They're world class at managing risk. They can manage the risk of seasonal conditions.
They can manage the risk of commodity prices. More recently, they've had to manage the risk of fuel and fertiliser price increases. But how does any farming family manage the risk of a lying Labor Party?
How is it possible to manage that risk? The coalition will oppose these bills, and the coalition will fight for small-business owners, for our farming families and for everyday Australians who are trying to get ahead through their own hard work and through preparing for their own retirement. What we will never do is go to an election based on a fundamental deceit and trickery, like this prime minister has done.
Australia is worth fighting for, and we are up for the challenge. If you believe in these policies, take them to election and give the Australian people a chance to vote.