STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator McDONALD (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (12:40): Well, we know that Australia is a country of people who work hard, not just for themselves but for their families. Australians work hard to build a better life for themselves, for their children, for their communities. This is the country that we know and we love.
Aspiration has always been an important part of the Australian way. It has been the reason why so many people over generations have chosen to come to Australia to live. It's something that we celebrate in North Queensland—the different cultures and peoples who have come to this country but are united in a desire to be a part of a common culture, the Australian culture, where, when you work hard and you're fair, you are accepted and part of a greater Australian community.
But under this government we have never seen such an attack on the Australian way of life, the Australian standard of living, indeed everything about that common culture that Australians love and value. The dirty deal done this week with the Greens party is nothing short of a complete sell-out. The Prime Minister said 50 times that there would not be changes to negative gearing, there would not be changes to the capital gains tax, there would not be death duties and there would not be changes to testamentary trusts and yet that is exactly what was announced in this budget.
This is another of Labor's lies. This is not lower power prices. This is not securing a reliable, predictable economy.
This is change to CGT, to the very robust, agile economic environment that we have not only to allow mum-and-dad investors to invest in startups, tech companies, but also to junior miners and explorers, to innovative farming businesses, to businesses of every type and location. All of Labor's budget announcements go to the heart of attacking those things. What have they had to do?
Well, they've watched the backlash across Australia, as Australians say, 'No, we did not vote for this.' In fact, at the 2019 election, they rejected Bill Shorten's campaign on exactly these kinds of issues. So it has taken us until 2026 for Labor to sneak these announcements back in despite having no approval from the Australian people to do it. And what's it resulted in?
Four years of a Labor government has resulted in out of control inflation. I mean, Labor would have you say that they inherited a higher cost of inflation than now. But to be clear, they are taking a point in time, a spike, following the lockdowns in Victoria and New South Wales, a very short point in time.
In fact, on average, under the coalition, inflation in Australia was half of what it is now under Labor. Now, inflation is a tricky thing. Most people don't really understand what inflation means for them but it means three things that we all care about passionately.
Inflation means that prices for every single thing that you do are higher. The price of food on the shelf is higher. The price of clothes in the store is higher.
The cost of rent is higher. It is the government's job to manage inflation, to not have out of control spending. But that is a hallmark of this Labor government.
Indeed, the amount of money that this Labor government is spending is nearly double what it was under the coalition prior to COVID. This is extraordinary. It is that out-of-control spending that has created higher inflation in Australia than in comparable G7 countries.
The RBA's singular job is to keep inflation under control, so the government has given the RBA no choice but to increase interest rates. So Australians who are struggling with their mortgage and the price they pay to keep their home have some of the highest interest rates in the world. There have been 15 interest rate rises under Labor.
The government's out-of-control spending means you pay more for every single thing that you buy and you pay higher mortgage rates. The third thing it leads to is higher taxes, which is, of course, what Labor has just delivered under this latest budget, because they're out of control spending means that, once they've spent all of their money, they're coming after yours.
We have seen massive increases in insurance of over 40 per cent; in gas, 40 per cent; in electricity, 37 per cent; in rent, 20 per cent; in education, 20 per cent; in food prices, 17 per cent; and, in health costs, 17 per cent. We have seen the biggest collapse in living standards in the developed world right here in Australia. If Australians think they're worse off, they are.
But they're worse off because of this Albanese Labor government's policies and out-of-control spending and inability to cut that spending. What are we left with? We're left with higher interest rates, higher prices and now higher taxes.
Labor lectures us about intergenerational inequality, but it is delivering higher government debt to future generations because of its inability to manage its own budget. The message to young Australians is that, under Labor, aspiration and building something for your family are bad. That's what Labor is telling Australians.
What Labor is telling Australians is that they should expect less from whatever their parents or their family may have left to them. A family home, death taxes, is well on this government's agenda. The government has taken none of the risks that young business people and old business people take and none of the risk that investors take to establish new mining ventures, new tech companies and new ag businesses.
The government has taken none of that risk and yet wants to take 40 per cent of the reward. Regional Australia is really copying it, though. Regional Australia has just seen a smashing of the sort of financing and support that we receive post-disaster.
In fact, Queensland has led the way on moving to a betterment model, making sure that every flood is handled better than the last, that Australians, that Queenslanders, have better results. But, under this Labor government, they have slashed funding to support states following disasters. They have also slashed funding to Disaster Relief Australia.
These are the 7½ thousand volunteers who turn up for months at a time to help Australians at their greatest time of need. Every day, Australians—farmers, tradies, small businesses—in regional Australia are worse off thanks to this Labor government. The small-business carve-out that the government is talking about in the budget is another con.
Nine out of 10 small businesses are worse off under Labor. Canberra is going to decide who's innovative. If that is not the greatest hypocrisy you have ever heard—to have bureaucrats and government departments deciding what innovation and tech is—I don't know what else could be.
This is an attack on our productive industries, on mining and on resources. Confidence has been undermined, investment has been discouraged and projects have been delayed. We know that, under the coalition, we will restore Australians' living standards.
We will protect Australians' way of life because the coalition backs Australians.