STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr BIRRELL (Nicholls) (13:48): There was a time when governments actually did the hard work. They consulted widely. They carefully considered the impacts of policy, and they understood and dealt with potential unintended consequences.

But we are in a new era now. Under the Albanese government, we get a cluster of thought bubbles delivered as a budget and presented in half-baked legislation that requires more backflips than a trampoline competition. The Treasurer has been unable to explain changes to trust arrangements, and the frontbench are all over the place to the point where they don't seem to have understood the policy change or the rationale for it.

Then, in a deal with the Greens, out of nowhere comes this attack on self-managed super funds and their ability to borrow for housing. As it turns out—and this should have been understood by the government—these arrangements have been used by widows and divorcees to ensure they have security and dignity into their later years, but a law was passed that threatens that security.

The government say, 'We'll fix it in a new tranche of legislation.' But wouldn't it have been better to have understood what you were doing in the first place and prevented the fear and confusion that have been the result of this mess? All of this confusion leads to a stall in investment, including housing investment, and that leads to fewer houses. At the World Cup in North America at the moment there are a few own goals being scored, but the Albanese government has just scored a few own goals as a result of this budget, and the Australian people are the ones who are losing.