Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026, Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026

Senator HANSON (Queensland—Leader of One Nation) (13:18): This is the worst budget that's been handed down. The public are having a say over this. All this is is a tax grab because you, the government, cannot rein in your spending; that's what this is about.

You're going to rip $77 billion out of the taxpayers' pockets—more taxes going your way because you can't control your spending. That's what this budget is about. You talk about investment.

We're keeping people out of the investment market. Why has that happened? It's because we've had the highest immigration into this country basically in history under this government.

In 2022-23 we had 739,000 people arrive. Yes, there might have been a couple of hundred thousand that left, but high immigration has caused the squeeze on the Australian people in terms of being able to get into housing. This is what I've been on and on and on about—high immigration.

Another thing too is foreign investment. You have not reined in foreign investors in the country. You worry about the Australian investor.

You want to shut them out of it. You've done nothing. Only after I spoke about it prior to the last election did you finally put a stop to foreign investors for two years.

But you keep bringing so many people into the country. What are you doing about the foreign investors that are here in Australia to ensure that Australians can have homes? It's so frustrating to listen to your concern about the Australian people because so many people are homeless in this nation.

There are 130,000 living in their tents, living in their cars or couch surfing. They don't have a roof over their heads. But you kept bringing in immigrants regardless of what the people said.

Therefore, we're in the predicament that we are in. This is nothing but a scam. Your whole policy, even that $10 billion housing policy, which never built a house for years—you have never been able to produce that at all.

Then you have a go at us, saying, 'One Nation never supported housing policy.' I'll support good policies, but I won't when I see it's rubbish and smoke and mirrors from that mob over there. You're really not doing anything. You think you're fooling the Australian people.

What you've done is put them in poverty in this nation with your policies because you can't rein in your spending. Why have we got an Aboriginal ambassador that's travelling the world at a cost of $800,000 and has done absolutely nothing—no reports—and we're paying them $400,000 a year? I thought our issues were here in Australia, not travelling the world.

This is where the money's gone. Why is there $600 million for Papua New Guinea for a footy team? I can go on and on and on about the waste of money that you've allowed, and now you want to put your hand into the pockets of Australians again over this.

You talk about investment in the country and you talk about negative gearing. There's no aspiration whatsoever for those future generations. Those people have watched their parents, who are from my generation, be given the opportunity to invest in housing.

You could rent it out. That rent could actually pay off the mortgage, and then eventually you could actually sell it for a profit, which would help you later in life, which we have done. And now we're trying to help our kids as well.

That was aspiration, not just socialist policies. What you want to do is get rid of investments in Australia by the Australian people. Most of your investments in Australia are coming from police, nurses, paramedics—these sorts of people—who have an opportunity to invest for their future.

Heaven knows how the hell they're going to support themselves. I can't see them getting the age pension, because there won't be the money under this government. We've got $380 billion coming in in revenue in this area, and we're paying out over $300 billion in welfare in this nation.

We won't be able to support future generations in aged care. Even the pensioners now are suffering. You can't even support the 100,000 pensioners waiting for packages.

It's a tax grab. You talk about capital gains tax. Again, I want the people to understand what this is about.

I've worked hard. I've paid my taxes and PAYG tax. I've then gone and used that money to buy myself some jewellery or whatever it might be.

I've bought myself something with that. When I bought that piece of jewellery, I paid tax. You robbed me of another 10 per cent of my hard-earned money.

You took another 10 per cent in tax off me. Under your bill, when I want to go and sell that piece of jewellery or that painting or whatever I may have bought, which may have increased in value, you now want to put your hand in my pocket again and you want to profit. You want to take from that increased value of that piece of jewellery or that painting or whatever I might have.

You want to take that from me again. You want to take the profit from it. Of course, I've got to get that all valued and I have to put down on paper what it's worth, and you want to take the profit from me.

Tell me, if I actually make a loss on that, are you going to reimburse me in my tax? Where do you stand on this? Where do you stand on taxing people on the assets that belong to them?

Why do you think that you have the right to put your hand in the pockets, again, of all those Australians out there because they've decided to buy themselves something that they may value, and rip them off again?