MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator McGRATH (Queensland) (16:43): I move: That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: The need to end the Albanese Government's assault on household budgets, with Australians paying more tax, more for their mortgage or rent and more for everyday essentials, while Labor pursues even more taxes that will make it harder to get ahead.

There is a bubble in Canberra, and it seems to be a bit of a left-wing bubble where the Labor Party and their allies in the Greens seem to think that everything is tickety-boo out there in the real world, but it's not. Australians, regardless of the state or territory in which they live and regardless of their individual economic circumstances, are being assaulted daily by the decisions of this Labor government.

It is an assault on their aspirations, on their lifestyle and on how Australians want to live from day to day. Under the Labor Party, since they were elected in 2022, taxes have gone up, services have gone up, and yet Australians are doing it tougher because real wages have not increased. Under the Labor Party's economic policies, we're in this vicious cycle where more is being spent, which drives inflation, and then we've got the tax that hits the inflation, and then they spend even more.

So the result is an economy where costs are rising, taxes are rising and productivity is falling, and there is no end in sight. This isn't just about the weekly grocery bill. It is about whether Australians can afford to own a home, raise a family, start a business, save for the future and get ahead.

It's actually about the Australian dream, which under the Labor Party has become the Australian nightmare. Since Labor have come to power, overall prices have gone up almost 17 per cent, rents have gone up 24 per cent, electricity has gone up 32 per cent, gas has gone up 36 per cent, food has gone up 18 per cent, insurance has gone up 43 per cent, health costs have gone up almost 20 per cent and education costs have gone up over 22 per cent.

Everything costs more because of the policies of this Labor government. The cost-of-living crisis has not happened in a vacuum. It's happened directly because of the economic policies that are being pursued by Mr Albanese and Mr Chalmers.

But it's not just that the cost of everything has gone up. Taxes have also gone up more. The amount of income tax that is being paid by Australians has gone up 39 per cent since Labor came to power.

Even after adjusting for inflation, income tax paid per person is up 7.3 per cent and Australians are being hit by bracket creep. As prices and wages rise, Australians are pushed into higher tax brackets even though their real purchasing power has not necessarily increased. So Labor are taxing Australians more on the inflation that has been caused by the Labor Party's own economic policies.

Australians don't need more tax; they need to keep more of what they earn. So you can have more of the same from the Labor Party, or the alternative is that you can look at the plan that Angus Taylor and Matt Canavan have brought forward, a plan that's going to focus on lower taxes. We're going to stop Labor's war on aspiration because we're going to axe their toxic taxes and introducing the tax-back guarantee and back in small businesses.

We're also going to have cheaper power. We're going to get rid of the fallacy of net zero. We're going to make Australia an energy superpower.

We're going to deliver cheaper power and energy abundance. We're going to free up housing stock and begin to restore the dream of homeownership. We'll cap immigration numbers based on available housing, and we'll put Australians first.

Because of Australia's out-of-control spending, Australians are paying more because of the inflation rate and our debt is going to hit $1 trillion. In fact, it has hit $1 trillion. That's $1 trillion of debt, $1 trillion of Labor spending.

We're going to pay it back because that's what responsible economic managers do.