MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (15:15): Another day, another question time of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer continuing and perpetuating the myths that they took to the last election—they're somehow honouring the policies that they took to the Australian people. The brutal reality is, around the country right now, the self-starters of Australia, the small businesses, the family businesses, those who are seeking hard to get ahead, the investors, those who are backing themselves through their hard work and sacrifice and now the retirees of Australia are wondering 'what is the government going to do to attack us next?' On budget night of this year, there were so many Australians who tuned in thinking that they were simply going to be watching another budget handed down about the finances of the nation.

Instead, they saw a direct assault on the aspiration and ambition of Australians. What they witnessed was a treasurer and a prime minister whose focus was on how they could raid the piggy banks of the nation, targeting young Australians saving for a home deposit and doubling the tax rate. To those who rent simply to be able to put a roof on top of their head, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have turned around and said in their own budget papers that there are going to be increases to the costs of rent.

The government goes on and deceives and says to the Australian people that, through their higher taxes, they're somehow going to lower the price of housing, yet concurrently they go around and in their own budget papers clearly articulate—while they overshoot their migration target by 90,000 over the next two years—that, under this budget, the Australian government is going to be responsible for building fewer homes.

Since that budget night, Australians have read story after story of how they're directly assaulted by the Treasurer and the Prime Minister's budget measures—higher taxes, higher costs—making it harder for them to get ahead. It's quite clear now, and we see the consequences starkly in the consumer confidence data: record low consumer confidence across Australia and, in the small-business confidence data, record small-business confidence in this nation's history.

And we have another metric: record small-business insolvencies. That is the lived reality Australians are having to experience under this government. They are living with the biggest deterioration that we have ever seen in our economic circumstances and our economic confidence, and it's all perpetuated by the Albanese government.

And just when the Australian people thought, 'Time's up; maybe they'll stop coming after us, assaulting us and targeting us with higher taxes,' the government has today struck a dangerous, dishonest and dirty deal with the Australian Greens in the Senate and is now targeting Australia's retirees. Well, Australians are sick of it. They're saying very clearly that the Albanese government does not have the best interests of Australians at heart.

And this is what is so shocking and distressing: Australians wake up every morning, working hard to get ahead to make sure they can afford food and they can afford what they're putting in their red basket or their trolley. Australians wake up and they work hard so they can go on and do things like pay their mortgage. They want to educate themselves, they want to be able to get ahead, they want to save for a better future or for a rainy day and, most importantly, they one day want retirement security so that, in the latter stage of life, when they're vulnerable, they don't have to worry about their future or their financial security.

At every single stage of life, the Albanese government has targeted Australians directly on their financial security, so they won't be able to put themselves in the best position to be able to decide how to live their best lives. It's now incredibly clear that this is the worst budget in Australian history, and that takes an incredible mark of achievement. Think about it—think about all the wreckage that was left behind by the Whitlam government in years past.

Now, we know that the Treasurer loves to wax lyrical and pretend that he's the modern-age Keating, but what we actually watch, not just in question time but when we go out of the chamber and to anywhere else, is a Treasurer who doesn't even have the courage to stand up and make the case for the reforms or the introduction of the measures that they've put in this budget and refuse to take to the Australian people.

Paul Keating would have the courage to take those measures to an election, make the case at the election and make the case afterwards. Instead, what we have is a prime minister and a treasurer who say one thing before an election then do the exact opposite after because they think they can sneak it past the Australian people and get away with it. The Australian people and their aspiration are just collateral damage in the process, and it hasn't ended.

The tax measures—the tax hikes—that were introduced in this budget may have been glaringly obvious to the Australian people on budget night, but, as detail continues to be revealed, there is no-one off this government's hitlist. You see the consultation paper they've now issued is like a footnote because they clearly didn't understand the economic consequences of their budget.

It was a footnote. At the last minute, as people slowly realise that the measures—the tax hikes—being taken in the budget were not just going to be targeted to property, all of a sudden, the people are involved in venture capital, startups and those building new businesses to grow out the economic opportunity said: 'Hang on, I think this applies to us. Hang on, they're directly assaulting our business, our opportunity and our capacity to employ Australians too.' In a rushed scurry at the last minute, the Treasurer inserted a footnote in the budget saying: 'We'll do some sort of consultation.

Don't come after us; it's okay.' What's been revealed, step after step, just like the small businesses of the nation, is that they have been on Labor's hit list too. Now we have a consultation paper out there trying to describe what an innovative business is. Yesterday, we heard from the Treasurer mocking disdain of businesses that innovate in incremental ways, no matter what their history.

This is one of the most disgraceful things I think I've ever seen a Treasurer do. Let's face it, there's a fair list of them at the moment. But, to have the Treasurer standing on the other side of the dispatch box, mocking hairdressers, ridiculing brickies and attacking people who earn a decent living and who are trying to get ahead to support themselves and their families, it makes one wonder what sort of government this is.

Their only solution is to attack Australians, tax Australians and inflate Australians out of a better future. They ridicule those people who want to get ahead, all because of the arrogance of this government. They think they know how to live people's lives and decide their fortunes better than the people do.

There's a reason Australians are so angry. They fundamentally believe that they should be in control of their own lives. Australians fundamentally believe that hard work should pay off.

Australians fundamentally believe that we should have honest government. Australians fundamentally believe that we should have open government, and Australians fundamentally believe that we should have a system where they're in control of their own lives and where they feel a basic sense of respect from the government that's supposed to be there to serve them.

This is where this Labor government has got it the wrong way round. They think that people are there to conform to them. Actually, the Australian government's job is to serve the Australian people.

What we have seen from this government is punching down every step of the way every time somebody stands up or speaks out about the ruinous consequences of that budget. But there is hope. There is a way forward.

While we've got Labor trying to divide the Australian people on the left and we've got other parties trying to divide Australians on the far right, we believe, in the coalition, in a way forward that unites our country, where we make sure hard work pays off, where people are in control of their own lives and where they feel a basic sense of honesty and respect from their government, as well as a culture built on respect where people are able to get ahead.

We believe that because we do not believe the government continues to stoke inflation, tax inflation and spend inflation that continues to take away the incomes of real Australians and increase the costs that are applied to households as they try to just keep their heads above financial water. We believe that people should keep the money that they earn, and that's why we put forward our Tax Back Guarantee, which explicitly says, when the government to continues to inflate the costs of wages and as people's incomes rise but are overcome by inflation, that they're able to get that money back and keep it in their hip pocket to be able to decide their own futures.

That's why we backed small business, unapologetically. If you are in a small business in this country, the Australian government should be cheering you on. And it's why we support an instant asset write-off of up to $50,000, and making it permanent.

But, more than anything, we have faith in the Australian people. We believe in the Australian people—their power and their potential. The tragedy is that they're witnessing attacks on them by the Albanese government.

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