MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Mr WILLCOX (Dawson) (15:38): Well, Australians are living in a Labor-created cost-of-living crisis and those opposite are congratulating themselves that the RBA governor held the rates today, but the reality of it is, under those opposite's watch, the interest rates have increased 15 times. During the break, when a lot of people were sunning themselves and doing whatever they were doing, travelling overseas, I spent the time in the electorate speaking to my people.

I was at pop-up offices and coffee catch-ups and markets. Ms Wells: Same! Mr WILLCOX: And you were doing the same.

That's excellent. Well done. It's good to see you were not travelling.

Ms Wells interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Let's stop taking the interjections. Mr WILLCOX: Under those opposite, the interest rates have been way too high for way too long. Inflation has been high.

The current rate of inflation is 3.8 per cent. The target rate is 2.3 per cent. Labor have lost control of the budget and they've lost control of the whole of the economy.

Instead of spending all Australians' money, the Prime Minister needs to be spending some time pulling his Treasurer into gear rather than making crude comments about Kylie Minogue and crude gestures about the Prime Minister of Japan. The Prime Minister is making everyday Australians' lives harder with his toxic taxes and economic mismanagement, and now he's demeaning women.

So I ask the Prime Minister to apologise to the Prime Minister of Japan, apologise to Kylie Minogue and apologise to all the women of Australia. While he's at it, the Prime Minister should also apologise to all Australians because under Labor Australians have experienced the biggest collapse of living standards in the developed world. And, folks, it's going to get worse.

This budget has the highest tax take of a budget ever. High spending is Labor's way, and this is then pouring petrol on the inflation fire. And what happens with inflation?

When you have inflation, your borrowing power, your buying power, every bit of money that you earn—you can't afford to buy as much. It's that simple. Those opposite are also going to drive debt over $1 trillion.

In this budget we've seen broken promises on negative gearing, capital gains tax, trusts, and we've seen more and more toxic taxes added. But the Prime Minister never took these to the election. I've never seen anything that Labor's not happy to tax.

They're happy to tax everything from the cradle to the grave. And why? Because of their insatiable appetite to spend.

Another crushing blow to all the young people is that thousands of young Australians were actively enticed to buy their first home under the federal five per cent deposit scheme, taking on 95 per cent of debt. Young couples across the community stretched every single dollar so that they could get their foot on the property ladder, trusting this government was offering them a genuine leg up to homeownership.

They signed contracts and took on heavy bank loans in good faith, believing that the market would remain stable and that their hard-earned deposit was safe. But, after encouraging these young buyers to max out their debt, Labor whacked them with toxic taxes on housing and investment, crashing entry-level valuations and trapping homeowners into negative equity.

But Labor's suite of toxic taxes doesn't stop there. It's a direct assault on aspiration, locking young Australians out of the exact same financial opportunities that were afforded to older Australians and whacking heavy new taxes on housing, on savings investment and family small businesses, making it almost impossible for young people to build long-term wealth, to buy a home or to start local businesses.

Instead of rewarding hard work and supporting ambition, Labor is penalising Australians and effectively pulling up the ladder on every Australian. The coalition has a plan to fix the economy and protect our way of life.