MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator McKENZIE (Victoria—Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (15:58): It gives me a great deal of pleasure to debate the fact that the Labor Party talks a lot about hypocrisy on our side of politics. The greatest hypocrites of all is the government who say they care about women, who say they care about domestic violence victims, who say they care about making sure they get first home owners into a home, yet their housing policy and their budget are delivering outcomes in direct opposition to that.

The level of economic incompetence from this government knows no bounds. I have been in parliament a long time. I am yet to recall a period of time, whether in government or in opposition, when we were still talking about the mistakes in a federal budget in August.

The reality is this government's economic incompetence has seen us now chasing to fix an economic mess of its own making, where its own legislation means, if you are going through a financial settlement as a divorcee, you are actually going to be subjected to the capital gains tax changes. If your partner dies, that estate will also be going through the capital gains changes.

Instead of consulting and getting it right before they make it l-a-w law, we are still here eight weeks, 12 weeks—it'll be 16 weeks before we get a chance to fix it. And that is why Australians are furious with Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party. They are not up to the job.

Inflation's through the roof. Interest rates are higher than they need to be. They blame the Middle East, but, when you look across all developed countries, inflation is higher here than it is in other developed countries or like nations, and for longer than it needs to be.

That is a fact, and it is because of the Labor Party's inability to manage their own spending. As I said earlier, if a couple is separating at a time when they still have a very high mortgage to pay off, or if the couple decides as part of the divorce settlement to retain the family home in the name of one person, maybe to make sure the children of that partnership continue to remain in the family home, limiting the destabilisation of those young people—they might want to put the house up for rent—the divorcee will lose access to grandfathered negative gearing and capital gains tax laws.

If the couple were already renting out an investment property, again, after the separation and transfer of assets into one name, the divorcee—potentially and often the woman—will lose access to the negative gearing arrangements available to other taxpayers who owned their home prior to 7 pm on 12 May 2026, budget night. The government pretends this is an unintended consequence of their law.

Again, really! Surprise! Not responsible!

But we now know that they were advised that this would be a consequence of the decision they took, and they didn't care, because they thought no-one would notice. The reality is that property investors, in the main, are nurses, teachers and coppers—that's the data—trying to prepare a future and retirement options for themselves. Those are the people that are investing in property.

And they are the people that were lied to by this Prime Minister and this Treasurer 50 times before the last election when they were told that this would not be part of— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator O'Neill ): Senator McKenzie, resume your seat. Minister? Senator Chisholm: I'd ask that Senator McKenzie withdraw.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator McKenzie, please withdraw. Senator McKenzie: What am I asked to withdraw? This is a fact.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Please take your seat and I will tell you. Senator McKenzie: You lie— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Take your seat, Senator McKenzie. I think you just used a word that you know is inappropriate.

If you recalled for one second what you said, you would know appropriately responding to my request is a plain and simple withdrawal. Senator McKENZIE: I withdraw. The Australian public was sold a pup when the Prime Minister stood up 50 times and said there would be no changes to negative gearing.

And what happened? This is why Australians are furious: if they had known, they wouldn't have voted Labor. They would have gone into the voting booth and actually been able to assess the two parties of government and what they were offering.

Instead, they were sold falsehoods— (Time expired)