MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (15:28): This matter of public importance debate is on the government's toxic taxes and economic mismanagement making life harder for everyday Australians. It's brought to you by the member for Page, who represents a regional electorate. Like anybody who represents a regional electorate, they would know just how tough country people are doing it at the moment.

But it's not just in the regions; it's right across this wide, brown land. I happen to like the member for Dobell, and she is the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. She is the Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health.

They are very important portfolio areas, and I genuinely wish her every success. But unfortunately—and it's not her fault, by the way—one of the very first things that this Labor government did was change the distribution priority areas for doctors, and that led to the departure of many of our fine general practitioners to the coast and to other peri-urban areas where they had plenty of doctors.

Unfortunately, that has led to a rural health crisis. Real wages are falling. They genuinely are.

People have less money in their pockets now to spend, less disposable income than before this really tawdry government came into office in May 2022. You only have to look at policies such as the widows tax, which is just cruel and unnecessary, and the private healthcare rebate being axed for over-65s. Then you have the algorithms determining aged-care assessments for older Australians.

What is it that this government has against aged Australians—people who have paid their taxes, people who have done so much to make this country what it is today. We've got a government that says it cares but is turning its back on older Australians. It's not right, it's not fair and it has to change.

We've had 15 interest rate rises. As was told to us today by the Leader of the Opposition in question time, mortgage holders have to find $29,000 more each year to pay off their mortgages than they did prior to this Labor government coming to office. Where is the equity of that?

Tonight is census night. I have a bit of experience with these census days and nights. In 2016 the response rate by households was in fact 95.1 per cent; that's pretty good.

But 95 per cent of households are probably now of less value than they were before the last budget. And do you know why? Because of the capital gains tax reforms that Labor said it wasn't going to do—and then on budget night we saw the Treasurer, the member for Rankin, introduce them.

It's caused so much hardship and harm for those people wanting to put a roof over their heads. For those people who already have a roof over their heads who invest in themselves and their futures, the government's pulled the rug from underneath them. Don't take my word for it; there are plenty of others saying precisely the same thing.

When it comes to regional Australians, we think of the farmers. In the budget, $191.6 million was taken out of feral pest management practices. That now means pigs, wild dogs, rabbits, mice and anything else you care to name that are killing sheep and taking away the profits of farmers are going to be running rampant thanks to this tawdry government.

Then we get to water buybacks. Even though we're heading towards a trillion dollars worth of debt, this government found it necessary to buy $430 million more of water from irrigators, from productive use, from farming use and from food and fibre production. And what are they going to do?

Flush it down the mouth of the Murray. That's what this Labor government does. I probably don't have time to talk about the $5,000 allied health cap for our veterans.

But what do Labor do? They just say, 'We'll consult.' They should have consulted before the budget. They should have consulted on the widows tax.

They should have consulted on the veterans allied health cap. It's simply not fair. It's simply not right.

But it's so typical of this Labor government that never sees a toxic tax it doesn't want to introduce, that doesn't tell people before the budget what they're going to do and then implements things in the budget.