On Tuesday night we saw the Labor government deliver their first budget, promising to make the tough decisions to get Australians through the cost-of-living crisis that they are suffering, a crisis in which we are all bearing the brunt of.
Despite being in the best possible position to deliver, Labor has failed Australians.
Unsurprisingly, Labor have lied to Australians during the election by claiming that you and your family “will be better off under a Labor government” and claimed they would reduce power bills by $275. Instead, Labor’s budget will see your electricity bill go up by more than 56% over the next two years with your gas bills also going up by more than 44%.
The last time that the Labor Party was in power, your electricity prices rose on average by 12.9% per year, in contrast, during the last nine years of Coalition government your power prices rose only on average by 0.3% per year.
Our public record is clear, Labor is incapable of living up to its promises of keeping your electricity costs down. On 97 occasions during the election campaign the Prime Minister said your power bill would go down by $275, and as Labor’s own budget shows each and every time those words passed through the Prime Minister’s lips it was a lie.
This federal budget has no measures to assist working families to deal with the cost-of-living crisis, It is clear that there is no plan to deal with inflation. Labor’s idea of relief is to ‘promise’ to build one million homes at a cost of $10 billion. It simply isn’t realistic, and as Peter Dutton has recently said “it’s Kevin Rudd-esque design”. A big headline with no substance to speak of, with no detail and no plan.
When we were in government, we maintained a strong economy for Australia. We emerged from the pandemic stronger than most in the world. We have an upper hand over other nations, yet Labor has failed to take advantage of the enviable position we left them in.
As Liberals, we believe that you should keep more of what you earn, and we believe that the best reward for your hard work is the government keeping its hand out of your wallet.
Our record speaks for itself, a person earning $90,000 paid $3,000 less tax than they did under the previous Labor government, each and every year. Labor is threatening to unwind the stage 3 tax cuts that legislated and are due to commence in 2024. Labor wants to dip its hand into your wallet to make up for their own incapacity to make the tough decisions in their budget.
Labor has abandoned the 23.9% of GDP tax cap. Under Labor, the tax paid by Australians will increase by $142 billion over the forward estimates. Australians deserve to keep more of what they earn, especially in this current crisis.
The Labor Party have once again proved that they are incapable of resisting the temptation to take more money away from Australians at every chance they can get.
Throughout the last term of government, we managed the nation’s finances responsibly. We responded to the immediate crises in front of us, while showing great restraint and keeping the overall strategy of budget management designed around the concept of returning us to surplus.
In just one year – 2020-21 to 21-22 – the Budget improved by over $100 billion dollars – the largest turn-around since Federation.
During the last election campaign, many Australians will recall that the Prime Minister consistently spoke about how he wouldn’t be the person to run away from responsibility, and in the first test of his new government, when Australians are looking for leadership and responsible economic management and reform, they were let down.
As the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, said in his budget reply speech on Thursday:
For all their moral posturing and their promises, Labor shows – time and time again – that their rhetoric in opposition never matches their actions in government.
You deserve to keep more of what you learn.
You deserve to have a government that is willing to tackle the challenges that we face.
You deserve a Prime Minister who’s going to be honest about what they can and cannot do.
You and your family deserve better.
Australians deserve better.
To watch and read Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton MP’s budget reply speech click here.
