STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr KENNEDY (Cook) (13:48): This budget is attacking what it means to be Australian. It's hollowing out our middle class. How is it doing that?

If you haven't yet had the opportunity to get wealth or assets, you're kept down here. You're kept down here because you're paying higher income tax than anyone's ever paid, you're paying in some cases more than double the CGT you would have paid before, and you can no longer negatively gear. If you've already made your wealth, it's entrenched.

You're grandfathered, you're protected. You've used the CGT discount. You are, unless you're a widow, a divorcee or someone fleeing domestic violence.

If you're one of those people or you've recently divorced and you've spent 15 years building a modest investment for your retirement and you're trying to refinance it as part of a divorce—this is a real case going on right now. What happened to this woman? Her preapproval for this investment was withdrawn.

Three lenders knocked her back, and suddenly she was being faced with selling an asset that she'd spent 15 years building. This isn't hypothetical. This is a woman right now in Australia because this government did not think through its budget.

While they were busily hollowing out the middle class of Australia, creating a country of haves and have-nots, they didn't think about divorcees, widows or people fleeing domestic violence. We will fix this.