QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator LIDDLE (South Australia—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (15:20): Sometimes question time can be a bit enlightening—surprise, surprise! We heard today Senator Gallagher say, 'We on this side'—that is that side of the chamber—'are proud of the tax reforms that passed the parliament last week.' I was left wondering, 'What bit are they proud of?' Let me tell you some of the evidence that was given in that sham inquiry process by people who are actually experts in the finance area, the banking area and the taxation area.
This is not like what we saw on the weekend where the Treasurer, in an interview, couldn't answer basic questions about his own legislation. And this week we've seen backflips—backflips on top of a promise. Australians have every reason to be disappointed, and Labor has nothing to be proud of.
The Property Council of Australia said: The combined effect of these measures is to increase uncertainty … Master Builders Australia said, 'At least they did the modelling.' But Master Builders' own modelling says that new housing supply is set to fall, that rents will go up, that there'll be a reduction in the GDP and that construction jobs will fall. Spoiler alert—they even said that most of the costs are actually in construction and that they don't even have enough apprentices or builders to do the work.
Yet Labor sits on that side and tells us it's going to build all of these new houses, while, at the same time, quashing investment in them. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said it was 'alarmed'. In fact, 'without proper consultation with affected stakeholders or a clear understanding of consequences' is how they saw this legislation going through this place.
The Business Council of Australia said that the only sure way to reduce housing is to increase the supply of new dwellings and reduce the cost of constructing them. They didn't see that in this legislation. These are people who are industry experts, and you keep calling this 'the greatest tax reform'.
It's a sham. What is real reform is a tax-back guarantee—an automatic tax cut that gets bigger every year by stopping inflation from pushing workers into paying more tax when they are no better off. That's called bracket creep.
We know you like bracket creep because it's the silent tax. A migration and housing pledge is what the coalition will do. We've said that we will cap migration based on how many homes Australia builds.
That makes a bit of sense. This is instead of people struggling and fighting for a roof over their heads. You only have to go for a walk in any parkland in South Australia or drive past any carpark, anywhere, and you can see people living in their cars, living in tents and looking for anywhere they possibly can for a bed.
We talked about a future generation fund over on this side of the chamber. We're going to bank resource windfalls to pay down debt and build national infrastructure. Do you know what else we'll do?
We'll back the private sector because they are the people who create the jobs, not the Public Service. It's taxpayers who pay for Public Service jobs. It's the economy, a strong economy, that pays for private sector jobs.
It's the economy, stupid! It's really clear. It's all about the economy.
That's how you improve people's lives. (Time expired) Question agreed to.