MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Senator BELL (New South Wales—One Nation Whip) (15:54): What we've just heard from Labor is that they believe it's normal to accidentally pass a tax on widows and divorced couples. Well, I can tell you it's not normal. It is an act of bad government.

Is it any wonder, when you hear Labor claiming this is normal and this wasn't a terrible mistake, that Australians don't believe them? Is it any wonder that Australians no longer trust this Labor government? Labor say that they want Australians to focus on what they call a 'big tax reform', but it's not a big tax reform.

It's really just a giant tax grab—$77 billion more in taxes that they are taking from you. And this budget bill—we know they've passed this widow tax and we know they've passed this extra tax on divorced couples, so what other cosmic sized black holes, what other dodgy accounting, are lurking within this bad bill? But Labor says: 'Don't worry; trust us.

We're just going to fix it later.' Why should anyone trust you when they know you continue to mislead them? Why would anyone trust the Prime Minister? The Prime Minister says his word is his bond, but recall that he promised that he would deliver the stage 3 tax cuts—but then he scrapped them.

And then he claimed there'd be no major changes to super, but then they raided the superannuation balances of Australians. And then the biggest 'I've changed my position' of all was the 50 times that this prime minister said he would not change negative gearing or capital gains. That's what he said to the Australian voters, yet here we are.

Labor governments punish initiative and aspiration. They are reaching deep into the pockets of nurses, teachers, labourers, police officers, small-business owners who are just trying to get ahead. And now Labor has proved to Australians that they should not trust a word it says.

The question you should be asking is: what else will Labor 'just change its position' on? Are they going to remove the family home from the pension asset test? Is that what's coming up next election? 'Well, we've just changed our position on that.' How soon before Labor bring back the Voice to Parliament, which they said they wouldn't be doing?

How long before Labor have 'just changed their position' on the Voice to Parliament? Labor says that they've carved out the death taxes from this bill, but how long before 'they've just changed their position' on that topic? That is what you need to be concerned about under this bad Labor government.

Labor likes to repeat the word 'fairness'. They'll say this budget is about fairness. Well, it's time we call it what it really is, which is just rank socialism.

This is a Labor government addicted to spending your money. And, when Labor starts running out of your money, they come back for more of your money and more. We see taxes go up.

We see investment driven away. We see productivity drop and Australians suffering more and more. I'd just like to point out that One Nation's Fire the Liar campaign has proved that no-one believes them anymore.

Australians are furious at the continued broken promises, the continued misleading statements. They're tired of leaders who just say, 'I've changed'—the Prime Minister saying he's changed his position. Australians will not stand for it any longer.

But there is hope on the horizon, because a One Nation government will be committed to cutting everyday taxes. We believe that income splitting is a great way to put more money back into your pocket, reducing the tax burden on couples and incentivising people to keep more of their money. One Nation will rein in government spending by scrapping net zero.

That is a promise. We will scrap net zero. When you look at the drain on this economy of the net zero ideology that this government is obsessed with, the damage that it's causing this country—that's why we say we will scrap net zero.

All of the money that you have hidden away in the Capacity Investment Scheme, all of the money that you're funnelling there, taxpayer money going into propping up wind factories and windmills and the intermittent power that is making it impossible for manufacturing to continue—that'll be gone. There'll be no changing position on that. That is a promise that we make to you.

One Nation will abolish net zero and restore reliable base-load power to this country. One Nation will restore the hope and aspirations of working Australians. We will put more money in their pocket, and we will do so by defeating this bad Labor government.