STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator BELL (New South Wales—One Nation Whip) (13:40): The Albanese Labor government's utter incompetence when it comes to their management of the economy is on full display this week with their total bungling of the widows tax. Australians who lose a husband or a wife should not have to wonder whether the taxman is waiting behind the undertaker, but here we are, thanks to this Labor government.

Australians going through a divorce should not discover that transferring a jointly owned property has suddenly changed its tax treatment. And here is the extraordinary part: Labor knew this was a problem. I know they knew because we told them.

Everyone told them. Senator Pocock told them. The government itself admitted it had been aware of the issue—and then you passed the legislation anyway.

Why? Because fixing that problem would have ruined your politics and it would have ruined your trick. What's the trick?

Present legislation that is so fundamentally flawed that anyone with any common sense would oppose it, which is what we did, and then you stand up and you misrepresent the truth and you say, 'One Nation voted against the worker.' We moved a motion to carve out tax cuts for workers, which you could have supported and passed the bill anyway, but you chose not to because it would have exposed your trick.

That arrogance is a habit with this government. One Nation opposed your tax grab. We opposed your broken tax changes.

We warned the Labor government about the failures of this budget before you went ahead and rammed it through. Government should never be about clever political traps and cheap headlines. It should be about getting the law right and putting the Australian people first.

Your continued attempts to gaslight the Australian people when it comes to the truth of what actually occurs is shameful. Just admit you got it wrong. You can't do it—just like the Prime Minister can't admit that he made a mistake and insulted the Japanese prime minister.

The Labor government needs to start admitting its mistakes and correcting them.