MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator KOVACIC (New South Wales) (16:32): Those contributions from the Greens and from the government have actually made my blood boil. How about being in the pocket of the CFMEU, with their corrupt and criminal conduct, which time after time after time you refuse to support an inquiry into because your pockets are full of their money? How about that?

Can I tell you right now that I could not believe what the government was saying in relation to this. They said, 'We make no apology about the tax concessions for the already wealthy.' Can I give you a newsflash? You're letting the allegedly already wealthy keep the tax concessions, but young Australians that have never had the opportunity to negative gear and that have never had the opportunity for a capital gains tax concession can never have one.

You've taken it away from them. If they've been saving their money in shares or building a small business, you're taking those concessions away from them. You're saying: 'No, it was good enough for us to create our wealth, but it's not for you.

To make it fairer for you, we're not going to let you do what we did to create wealth.' I'm sick of hearing it. Australians aren't stupid, as Senator Bragg said. They actually know what is going on here, and the Albanese government has to explain why they misled Australians before the last election.

The Prime Minister, in his own words, said, 'Fifty times, I've said no changes to negative gearing and CGT.' Guess what he does after the election in this year's budget. He changes both those things. He had an interview with Andrew Clennell where he said, 'Our position changed, and no-one else has had the ticker to make these changes.' Guess what?

This prime minister didn't have the ticker to take the changes to an election, because he knew that he couldn't sell them, he knew that they were fundamentally unfair and he knew that they would not change the ability of young people who currently do not own a house to actually have a house. The other interesting thing is, if we wind back to last year, they introduced their five per cent deposit guarantee and encouraged young people to use that to actually enter the market with the support of the government.

Now guess who is at the greatest risk of negative equity based on this current policy from the Albanese Labor government? It's those very people who took up the five per cent deposit guarantee. The lack of understanding of the impacts of this policy is extraordinary.

They point to a two-day inquiry and call it evidence and say that evidence matters. If evidence does actually matter, I say to the government: why was your inquiry two days? What a sham.

These are some of the biggest tax changes this country has seen, and less than 48 hours is what you allot to it. You're not interested in consultation. You're not interested in the evidence.

You're interested in ensuring that the vested interests of this government are advanced. That is it. Australians were told that these taxes were not coming.

They were told that they were not on the table. The Prime Minister said over and over and over that they were not on the table. His deception is of the highest order.

This government is taking our country in the wrong direction. This is the highest taxing government in our history, with higher taxes, more complexity, less certainty and fewer opportunities for Australians to get ahead. That is the legacy of this government.

In Hong Kong, Singapore and the UAE, CGT is zero per cent. In the US it's between zero and 20 per cent. In the UK it's between 10 and 24 per cent.

And in Communist China it's 20 per cent. Under the Albanese Labor government in Australia, it is 30 per cent. Have a think about that for a minute.

That's for individual Australians. The Australian mum and dad and the Australian worker, who those opposite always talk about, are treated as the enemy while foreign backed build-to-rent capital can receive concessional treatment. We can have expensive concessions for them, just not expensive concessions for the actual Australians who are paying the tax.

Why does that count? Why does that matter? Even the super funds are getting concessions.

But everyday Australians? No. If you want to build wealth, you're a bad capitalist.

We want you to sit in your wage cage, pay your tax, sit down and be good, and speak when you're spoken to.