QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator ANTIC (South Australia) (15:12): Well, we've heard a lot of angles on the economy today. What I heard, though, were almost impassioned pleas from the Labor Party to believe them when it comes to the issue of the economy. That's not something you get a lot of, out in the mainstream, from the Australian people, in particular when we've heard all about this high-taxing agenda, the impact of the CGT changes.
You can astroturf that all you like, but it all comes back down to the thing people are talking about in this country at the moment, and that's how expensive everything is for them. This is not going to help that. The average Australian family is now well and truly aware that those opposite speak about the worker, they speak about the Aussie battler, but in fact are more obsessed with being taken in by the global elite.
They love to traipse off to Europe and get loved up by the European Left, and the Australian people aren't being fooled by this anymore. They've seen this played out, and they know now that side of the chamber really have no interest in those who are the backbone of our workforce—the fathers, the providers, the blokes who get up before dawn to get out and build the country with their hands.
These are the people who, for too long, have been sold out by globalists and bureaucrats here in Canberra, by those who purport to speak on their behalf while all their actions, as we've seen over the last month or so, do quite the opposite. Look around you at the moment. What do we say to the Australian family when factories have been closing for years on end because of free trade deals and profits for multinational companies?
Mining towns are under pressure from the climate scam and being hollowed out with cheap imports. The wealth of this country is being sent overseas by this globalist mindset and, one by one, the opportunities that built the Australian dream are being squeezed and shuttered, with not even a thought for the millions of working men left behind. These people don't speak for them.
They speak for the global elite. And this higher-taxing agenda is proof positive of that. These are, ultimately, the forgotten men and women of Australia, people who are middle aged, often in the outer suburbs or in regional towns, being overlooked by a system that prioritises net zero fantasies and woke ideologies, that lectures them and ignores the very real struggles that they face—the ever-increasing family breakdowns and economic despair.
How do you fix that? Well, I'll give a little message to those opposite. It's not by increasing their tax burden or by taking away their opportunity for aspiration and investment—investment which is not, despite what those opposite say, about the big end of town.
It's about people in control of their own destiny being able to choose their way without having to pump the tires of government coffers. The elites will tell you this is called progress, but I call it betrayal. Globalism hasn't lifted everyone up.
It's crushed the Aussie battler, the working man, who just wants a fair go, a stable job and a future for his kids. He's now met with indifference, with a high-taxing agenda, with virtue-signalling policies and a cultural elite that are increasingly mocking his values. I say enough is enough.
Let's just call it what it is: this is a high-taxing government who is using your money and my money to build an army of themselves in the Public Service with big government in order to keep their jobs—jobs which they would never, ever be able to achieve in the private sector. I think we know that well and truly. It's time to look at what the problem is here: half the problem is the domestic government and half the problem is this building's fascination with globalism.
That has ripped the guts out of this country. It has taken jobs from Australians. The only job of a government here is to protect its citizens from such nonsense.
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