MOTIONS

Mr KENNEDY (Cook) (19:01): Australians don't need another lecture from Canberra about living within their means. People in my electorate have been doing it for years. They're making decisions around the kitchen table every week—what can wait, what expenses they can defer, what they can cut.

Can they afford insurances? Do they skip insurances? Do they put the kids in sport?

Do they move them from private schools to public schools? Small businesses around the electorate of Cook are closing in rapid rates. We've seen Caringbah hollowed out, with businesses leaving the main street.

We've seen it in Jannali. We've seen it in strip malls all over the electorate of Cook. Last year, I told this House about a pensioner in my community who couldn't afford his electricity bill.

I had to pass him on to Wesley Mission to pay it so he could keep the lights on, the fridge cool and the stove working. I spoke about FJP Manufacturing, where electricity costs had risen by more than 70 per cent in two years and gas costs by more than 50 per cent. They used to have seven apprentices; they're down to one, and they're risking shutting up shop.

The owners watched the number of tradies in the business fall from seven to three, and they fear it could fall to zero. They understand something this government seems to have forgotten: there's no such thing as an unlimited budget. The Albanese government has brought Australia's debt to over $1 trillion.

This money, and the money now spent servicing the debt, could be used for funding better roads, hospitals or defence capability. The first principle is simple: government spending should not keep growing faster than the economy that has to pay for it. The coalition has proposed a spending limit that would put a guardrail around expenditure growth.

This means recognising that every new program, every expansion and every permanent commitment must ultimately be paid by someone—a taxpayer, a business or a hardworking family. Usually, that taxpayer is an Australian. Income tax is now the highest percentage of our GDP that it's ever been.

That means average everyday Australians are paying more than they ever have. They're getting screwed by this government, and they know it. They know it when they see it in their pay packet.

They know it when they look at their bank statement and wonder how they're going to pay the mortgage payment. They know it when they look in their kids' eyes and wonder whether they are going to be able to provide for their children's future. They know it when they have fights over the kitchen table at night because of the pressures their families are under.

They know it because they worry about the future of this country. They know it when they browse through Seek and look for other jobs, trying to find another job that could pay them the five or 10 per cent that might pay for next month's mortgage rate increase—or the second one that many banks are predicting later this year. They know it when they feel anxiety in the morning, when they wake up and think, 'How am I going to get through this month's expenses?' They know it when they despair about which political party they're going to vote for.

They know it when they're forced to vote for different political parties than they may have grown up thinking of supporting, because they're despairing. They're wanting to junk the system because this government isn't delivering what it promised—and we're all paying the price. The coalition want to give people back control of their own lives, give them the feeling that they can have their hands on the steering wheel and take control of their life.

That's why we'll look to give them a tax cut every year for the rest of their lives—a lifetime tax cut. Every single year you will have more of your money back in your pocket; that's our tax back guarantee. This would mean the two lowest income thresholds would be linked to inflation, protecting 85 per cent of income earners from being pushed into a higher tax bracket every year.

This is a practical response to Labor's stealth tax. They call it bracket creep. It is a silent income tax increase on you every year.

Yes, your mortgages are going up. Yes, your insurance is going up. But what they hide is that your tax and income tax goes up every single year.

We'll stop it. We'll give you a tax cut this year, next year and the year after, every year for the rest of your life—and they all build on one another. We want to give you back control.

We want to give you power around your own life and your decisions, to empower you to look after yourself and your family.