Darren Chester
Gippsland · National Party · Australia
“After four years of the Albanese government, Australians are worse off and our nation is heading in the wrong direction, with the standard of living in freefall. The heart of the problem, why Australians are worse off, is very simple: we're being led by a prime minister who simply can't tell the truth.”
“This is a prime minister who said, 'I won't BS people,' but in question time we cannot get a straight answer out of this prime minister to any question. The Prime Minister told Australians, 'My word is my bond.' Remember that?”
“We need someone like Gemma Rendell to stand up and fight for our fair share as a genuine community champion. I believe in putting locals first. For me, putting locals first means supporting our small businesses, our family owned businesses, right across the electorate of Gippsland.”
“We need those local businesses to survive. Right now, it's pretty tough in the local economy. We need you to be out there supporting local businesses at every opportunity. Winter is not a time to hibernate. Winter is a time to get out and explore Gippsland.”
“Gemma Rendell is an outstanding East Gippslander. Gemma is aiming to create history at the state election in November by becoming the first female member for the seat of Gippsland East. She is a busy young lady already. She's a farmer, a teacher, a young mum, and she's been active in our community for many years.”
“Traditionally, we've had a peak holiday season of eight to 10 weeks over the summer period where all of the accommodation is full and all of the restaurants are busy, but then it's been quiet in winter. Now we're trying to make sure we build on our winter season.”
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“This is a prime minister who said, 'I won't BS people,' but in question time we cannot get a straight answer out of this prime minister to any question. The Prime Minister told Australians, 'My word is my bond.' Remember that? Australians just want to know: when will this prime minister stop breaking promises and just tell the truth for once?”
“After four years of the Albanese government, Australians are worse off and our nation is heading in the wrong direction, with the standard of living in freefall. The heart of the problem, why Australians are worse off, is very simple: we're being led by a prime minister who simply can't tell the truth. This prime minister can't be trusted to tell the truth in any circumstances, because the Prime Minister told Australians not once, not twice, but 50 times that he wouldn't change capital gains tax, negative gearing or the treatment of trusts. We all remember when the Prime Minister fell off the stage and said, 'Oh no, I stepped back one step; I didn't fall off the stage.' Australians are still waiting for the $275 reduction in their power bills that the Prime Minister promised 97 times.”
“Traditionally, we've had a peak holiday season of eight to 10 weeks over the summer period where all of the accommodation is full and all of the restaurants are busy, but then it's been quiet in winter. Now we're trying to make sure we build on our winter season. We have things like East Gippsland Winter Festival and other activities and events occurring right across the region. So whether it's Port Albert all the way through to Metung, Paynesville, Lakes Entrance or even Mallacoota and the high country—Dargo and Omeo—all of these places are offering great deals for people to take a break and explore Gippsland this winter.”
“We need those local businesses to survive. Right now, it's pretty tough in the local economy. We need you to be out there supporting local businesses at every opportunity. Winter is not a time to hibernate. Winter is a time to get out and explore Gippsland. I'm encouraging people right across Victoria, in particular, to consider taking a break in Gippsland. In winter you can get out and explore Ninety Mile beach. The fishing's great. Get down to the Gippsland Lakes, go to the high country, enjoy the snow, enjoy camping and sit around a camp fire to warm up at night. These are all things that you can do in Gippsland in winter. I want to explain why it's so important to encourage people to take a break this winter in the Gippsland community. The visitor economy in our region is vital to the future prosperity of Gippsland.”
“We need someone like Gemma Rendell to stand up and fight for our fair share as a genuine community champion. I believe in putting locals first. For me, putting locals first means supporting our small businesses, our family owned businesses, right across the electorate of Gippsland. These small businesses are the engine room of our economy, employing local people and investing in our sporting clubs and community clubs. These are the first people we call on to sponsor those types of organisations, and we need them to prosper. By putting locals first—shopping locally, eating and drinking locally, and using local service providers—we are all investing in the future of our economy, making sure that our money stays in Gippsland. So I encourage all Gippslanders to please keep putting locals first and support the local businesses that support us.”
“Gemma Rendell is an outstanding East Gippslander. Gemma is aiming to create history at the state election in November by becoming the first female member for the seat of Gippsland East. She is a busy young lady already. She's a farmer, a teacher, a young mum, and she's been active in our community for many years. I want to thank her for being willing to serve and to seek high office as the state member for Gippsland East. Gemma is committed to fighting for our fair share, and I congratulate the Liberals and Nationals in Victoria for their commitment of a fair share guarantee fund, which will make sure that 25 per cent of infrastructure funding gets delivered into our regional communities, because regional communities in Victoria right now are being short changed.”
“Families are being traumatised by a government that is failing in its fundamental duty to all Australians: just keep Australians safe. Worse than that, we now know that the government is trying to hide the facts from the nation with sneaky political tactics which are unworthy of a minister in the Parliament of Australia.”
“They end up calling ambulances, and they wind up in hospital rather than in more appropriate settings. Ryan Park, the New South Wales health minister, said: The reality is the lack of aged-care places and the wait times for those places mean 800 people remain stranded in New South Wales hospitals … This is not good for patients—it decreases mobility. It increases their risk of further complications. They and their families deserve better. That is the bottom line. They and their families deserve better than this. This government's war on older Australians is hurting their health. This government's war on older Australians is hurting their finances and their retirement incomes. It's hurting the people they love, who are seeing their family members suffer.”
“Well, the government tried to bury the wait times report by releasing it in budget week because that wait time report showed older Australians were waiting more than a year to receive their Support at Home packages. The Older Persons Advocacy Network Director, Samantha Edmonds, in relation to aged-care waiting figures being confronting, said: It's so detrimental to the health and wellbeing of older people to have those wait times, to watch their health and wellbeing decline. We have the New South Wales health minister saying that older Australians are now blocking beds in hospitals—up to 800 per night—because there's no support for them in their own homes. What happens when people are left on this waiting list is that their health deteriorates. They have falls. They then need more help.”
“In March this year the minister said: I think the Integrated Assessment Tool is doing a good job. Then, on 3 June, he announced a so-called rapid review of the same system that apparently eight weeks earlier was doing a very good job. Surely the minister now understands that the system is not responding well to people whose conditions are deteriorating quickly and that they have been left on these waiting lists without receiving any support in their own homes. The algorithm simply isn't working. I've listened to the minister give media interviews. The algorithm isn't working, human assessors in our communities are incredibly frustrated and the prioritisation of cases has resulted in warped outcomes. Various advocacy groups have written to the minister and have spoken publicly about their concerns. What did the government do in response?”
“The government promotes programs that support older people to remain in their own homes, but the reality is that the system seems unable to deliver supports within a timeframe that reflects the urgency of their needs. Perhaps those responsible for designing these changes should ask themselves a simple question: if this were their own mother or father, would they be satisfied with this outcome?' I appeal to the minister, and I appeal to the department: if this were your mother or father, who was 100 years old and waiting month after month for support in their own home, would you be satisfied? I ask the department, and I ask the minister to do better. Just do better. The minister can't claim that he hasn't been told. As I said, I've written to him on many occasions and so have my colleagues.”
“Frank died on the waiting list. We received no additional action, and the letter itself contained no commitment to try and fast track support for this 99-year-old couple. I urge the minister and I urge the department to take some responsibility for these long delays and show some urgency on behalf of older Australians who are now waiting up to 12 months to receive Support at Home packages that they've been deemed eligible to receive. Sadly it's not an isolated case. I've got one other case here in a letter from Marie, who wrote to me a couple of weeks ago, I think, about her 100-year-old mother. She says, 'My mother is 100 years old. She has already waited many months after being approved for funding and now faces further delays before any practical assistance can be provided.”
“They wanted to stay at home—and we all know that older people in our community do better if they have that opportunity to stay in their own, familiar surroundings. After some recent falls, Frank and Velma were reassessed as being eligible for a modest assistance package under the Support at Home program. Did they get the help, as the minister tries to pretend in this place? No. Frank and Velma were told their package would be delivered in 11- to 12-months time. They were 99 years old! We warned the government that they could very well die before they received that package. We asked in Senate estimates if there was any way we could fast track this package for Frank and Velma. I wrote to the minister. We waited 74 days for a response from the government, and poor Frank died seven days before that letter arrived in my office.”
“There could be up to 100 Australians dying each week as they wait for the support they are entitled to receive.These people have been assessed and have been deemed eligible for support, and they are dying on the waiting list. These are not abstract numbers on a page. These are real people who have worked hard, contributed their taxes and helped to build our nation, and they find themselves needing a little bit of help to stay in their homes. They've been assessed for care, and they're not receiving the care they're entitled to. I'm going to give you one tragic example. I've spoken about this in the past and in local media. I have the permission of the family to do so. I was contacted by a family member who was concerned about his 99-year-old parents, Frank and Velma, who were both 99 and both living at home.”
“I'm not trying to score a political point in saying this, but we are trying to instil a sense of urgency in this minister and his department about the real-life consequences of their failure to fix the aged-care system. Now, the minister has told the House previously: Aged care is a fundamental promise this country makes to older Australians that … they will be safe, they will be seen and they will be cared for with dignity. But, given that Senate estimates has been told that 4,800 older Australians died in just 12 months waiting for their Support at Home package, isn't this just another broken promise to the people of Australia? We simply don't know what the current figure is. The minister was invited today to give us a figure from 2022 to now. He failed to do that.”
“The Australian people weren't even given a chance to vote on those changes at an election. I'm going to focus my comments today more on aged care for a very good reason. This is literally a matter of life and death for a lot of older people in our community. I have spoken on this issue in the past, in this chamber and in the Federation Chamber as well, and I make this contribution with a heavy heart because it should never have come to this. We have written repeatedly to this minister on behalf of constituents. In fact, my office is now tracking 18 outstanding representations to the minister since the start of the year. This minister can take three to four months to bother responding to correspondence on behalf of my constituents.”
“Now, for a prime minister who promised to govern for all Australians, this is yet another broken promise because our aged-care system is in crisis. There are now 230,000 Australians on waiting lists, and what those Australians don't need is the fake empathy we saw in question time from this minister. They need action. The aged-care system has 230,000 people on waiting lists, and now what we're seeing on top of that, in terms of impacts on older Australians, is this government coming out and deciding to cut private health insurance rebates. We've seen this government come along and change the arrangements for capital gains tax, change the arrangements for negative gearing and change the arrangements of trust and self-managed super funds, all after the Prime Minister said not once, not twice, but 50 times he was making no such changes.”
“The Albanese government has declared war on older Australians because the majority of them don't vote Labor. It's as simple as that. The Albanese government has declared war on older Australians because the majority of them don't vote Labor. Now, through deliberate measures in a budget of broken promises and higher taxes and through rationing the services that our seniors need, the Labor Party has sent a clear message that it simply does not respect older Australians. The message we are receiving back in return is equally simple. Australians want their country back. After four years of this government, Australians are worse off and our country is heading the wrong direction. It's older Australians who are copping it the most. Budgets are about choices, and this government simply doesn't choose to support our older Australians.”
“I didn't fall off the stage.' And Australians are still waiting for the $275 reduction in power bills the Prime Minister promised 97 times. Who would believe another promise this prime minister makes? This is a prime minister who was elected on deceit, broken promises and trickery, and now he's doing deals with the Greens to ram his budget of broken promises and higher taxes through the parliament. The budget confirmed the great deception at the heart of this government. The Prime Minister also said to the Australian people, 'My word is my bond, and I won't BS people.' Prime Minister, when will you actually start telling the truth?”
“Australians have one simple question for this prime minister: when will the Prime Minister stop breaking his promises and actually start telling the truth to the Australian people? After four years of the Albanese government, the family budgets of everyday Australians are going backwards with a severe decline in living standards. The Prime Minister promised before the election that Australians would be better off under this government. It's just another broken promise from a prime minister who is allergic to telling the truth to the Australian people. The Prime Minister told Australians 50 times that he wouldn't change capital gains tax and negative gearing. When the Prime Minister fell off a stage, he said: 'No. I stepped back one step.”
“Gemma Rendell is a born-and-bred East Gippslander who is passionate about the future of our community and has the lived experience to make a difference as she represents us in state parliament after November. Gemma will be focused on delivering a fair share of government funding for the region and improving essential services for people of all ages across townships such as Maffra, Heyfield, Stratford, Bairnsdale, Lakes Entrance, Paynesville, right through to Mallacoota and into the high country towns like Dargo and Omeo. The Nationals stand for a stronger, safer and better regional Australia where everyone can get ahead, and Gemma Rendell will be an outstanding advocate for Gippsland East after the November state election.”
“In November this year, Victorians have the opportunity to change their government and get rid of a Labor Party which has allowed rorts and corruption on building sites to waste $15 billion of taxpayers' money—$15 billion of taxpayers' money wasted on union thugs and bikie heavies. I'll be campaigning alongside my state colleagues to help deliver a fair share of funding to regional communities, with the Nationals' fair share guarantee, where 25 per cent of infrastructure funding will be returned to our regional communities if the coalition wins government. In the seat of Gippsland East, we will be aiming to make history at the November election. We'll be aiming to have the first female member of parliament for that seat in the history of Gippsland East. The Nationals candidate is a teacher, she's a farmer and she understands our community.”
“Over the past 30 years, more than 100,000 Australians have served in war, conflict and peacekeeping missions. Today, their stories remain mostly untold. The Australian War Memorial's redevelopment project is modernising and expanding the galleries and the stories we tell of Australian service and Australian sacrifice. For the first time, the memorial will have displays dedicated to Australia's efforts to prevent war and to contribute to peace. Our contemporary veterans and their families are some of the strongest supporters of the redevelopment. This is a national endeavour that Australians can be proud of. Lest we forget.”
“The Australian War Memorial stands as the most important building in our nation because it lies at the heart of our commitment to remember the 103,000 Australian Defence Force personnel who have died wearing the uniform of our Army, Navy or Air Force. It reminds us that the freedoms we enjoy today came at a very heavy price. Those who were killed, those who were physically wounded and those who never recovered from the mental scars and the families who supported them in their service—they are the ones who paid the price for the freedoms that we enjoy. We must never forget that sacrifice. That is the key reason why the coalition funded the redevelopment of the Australian War Memorial while we were in government. It was to tell the stories of contemporary service in the Australian Defence Force in a timely and appropriate manner.”
“Although I emphasise the minister's point that these are wild birds that have been detected with the virus, we do need to do everything we possibly can to ensure that our $8 billion poultry industry and the 60,000 people who work in that supply chain are kept well informed in the coming days and weeks. I thank the minister for her update to the House.”
“on indulgence—I thank the minister for her update. The coalition stands ready to support the government as it deals with the impact of the confirmed detection of the H5 avian influenza in wild birds in Western Australia. It is a serious development, and I thank the minister for her willingness to contact me over the weekend and for her office's preparedness to provide updates to the coalition on a regular basis. We need to be very clear that this is a threat for which the Australian biosecurity system has been preparing for many years. While we do need to prepare for the worst, we are hoping for the best. We stand ready as a coalition to support the government, particularly with the potential risk to our poultry sector.”
“It's now official. Our country is being run by a jellyfish caucus. The modern Labor Party has become a blubbering mess and is a political party which has simply lost its spine. Jellyfish are defined by their lack of brains, their lack of bones and their lack of heart. They are spineless and they are gutless, without the brains to think for themselves, drifting along on the ocean currents. Now, does that sound familiar? We have a jellyfish caucus drifting along the opinion polls, focus groups and the will of an untrustworthy prime minister. They don't even have the guts to be upfront with the Australian people. Today the Labor Party guillotined debate on its budget of broken promises after only 24 members of the jellyfish caucus actually spoke on the second reading of the bill.”
“If the government's own forecasters are warning about tougher conditions ahead, you'd expect a positive budget response. Instead, like always, the answer from the Labor Party is more punitive tax measures. The complex issue that we need to deal with here—”
“This is precisely the wrong time for the government to be making it harder for our farming families. Just yesterday ABARES released a forecast that indicates quite a concerning picture for Australian agriculture. Production is forecast to decline. Export earnings are forecast to decline. Winter crop production is forecast to fall significantly from recent highs. Most concerningly, the average broadacre farm business profits are forecast to fall dramatically in 2026-27. These are tough times for a lot of our farming families, and this prime minister has just made it tougher. At precisely the moment when farm profitability is falling and under pressure, there is little—if not nothing—in this budget that directly addresses declining farm incomes.”
“Australia is home to world-class farmers, and one of the reasons our 85,000 farmers are world class is that they know how to manage risk. They can manage the risk of seasonal conditions. They can manage the risk of commodity prices. More recently, they've had to manage the risk around fuel and fertiliser prices, related to the war in Iran. But how is an Australian farming family meant to manage the risk of a prime minister who deliberately misleads them prior to the election and does something completely different only 12 months later? How is a farming family meant to manage the risk of having a prime minister promising no changes to capital gains tax, no changes to trust arrangements and no changes to negative gearing and then, 12 months later, changing his mind? How are farming families meant to manage that risk?”
“Our farmers are world class for a good reason. They're world class at managing risk. They can manage the risk of seasonal conditions. They can manage the risk of commodity prices. More recently, they've had to manage the risk of fuel and fertiliser price increases. But how does any farming family manage the risk of a lying Labor Party? How is it possible to manage that risk? The coalition will oppose these bills, and the coalition will fight for small-business owners, for our farming families and for everyday Australians who are trying to get ahead through their own hard work and through preparing for their own retirement. What we will never do is go to an election based on a fundamental deceit and trickery, like this prime minister has done. Australia is worth fighting for, and we are up for the challenge.”
“The Victorian Farmers Federation has publicly warned that more than 50 per cent of farmers will not receive a CGT concession and will pay massively higher tax bills when transferring farm ownership to their children. Their fear is that some farmers will have to sell off some of their land just to pay the capital gains tax bill created by this government. We have the National Farmers' Federation raising similar concerns, and we don't have any answer from the minister about whether the 85,000 Australian farmers will be worse off under the government's broken promise on capital gains tax. The minister just constantly dodges the question. We want to know if there has been any modelling. If the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry wasn't consulted, how does the government even know what the impact will be?”
“The capital gains tax changes in this legislation, presented to the parliament without any mandate by those opposite, make it more costly and complicated for older farmers seeking to manage their succession planning with their children. We on this side of the House want to see more farming families. We want to see more family owned farms and properties on the land, providing the food and fibre our nation needs. But these changes inevitably will lead to more corporate farms, and our farmers are justifiably worried about the changes to the capital gains tax arrangements. The minister was asked about this in question time, and she clearly doesn't understand her own government's changes, which represent a broken promise to all Australian farmers.”
“No, not many of them at all have any direct experience when it comes to small business, and it's demonstrated by the measures in the budget. What Australians are telling me is that they're actually sick of business as usual in Canberra, and they're sick of Labor's broken promises. It's tough out there right now for farmers, for our small-business people and for Australian families. What does the Prime Minister do as Australians are feeling the pinch of cost-of-living pressures and a reduced standard of living? Well, the Prime Minister decides he will make it more difficult for Australians to build their own wealth, get ahead and maybe transfer their business or farm to the next generation.”
“He said: It makes governments honest and stops them being able to offer tax reductions before the next election. That goes to the core of the bill before the chamber today. What a novel idea making governments honest is! The Labor Party has demonstrated since the election and, most recently, through the budget and the bill before the chamber today that its only plan for regional Australia is to tax them more. The overwhelming majority of those opposite have never actually run a small business, and it shows in this policy before the chamber. I acknowledge, member for Nicholls, that they may not have visited too many family owned enterprises, but they've certainly done a picket line out the front of quite a lot of them themselves. They've picketed lots of small businesses, but have they actually run a small business?”
“We're going to take the novel approach of having a policy position, taking it to the Australian people, giving them a vote and letting them decide what they think is in the best interest of the Australian nation, rather than the approach adopted by the member for Grayndler and the Treasurer of deceit, deception and trickery to try to win government. The position taken by the coalition has been well received by the Business Council chief executive, Bran Black. He said: Indexing tax brackets is good reform and will help ensure workers are not paying higher tax rates simply because of inflation and wage growth. Respected economist Saul Eslake said that the indexation of tax brackets and resulting automatic tax reductions stopped government's using the cash to sweeten voters at election time.”
“Even though your real purchasing power hasn't changed, a larger portion of your money actually goes to the government, and Canberra celebrates. It means that the government takes more tax every year from everyday Australians without needing to change the laws. The coalition, if elected at the next election, will introduce a new tax-back guarantee, and this will index tax thresholds to inflation so Australians keep more of what they earn. It will deliver relief of around $250 in the first year and more than $1,000 per year by year four. It means no more yearly inflation tax rises. This is real tax reform.”
“On this side of the House—and it was pointed out during the budget-in-reply speech by the opposition leader—We have a better plan, a better way to restore aspiration to the Australian people. The opposition leader, in his budget-in-reply speech, explained how the coalition would help everyday Australians deal with the insidious impact of inflation and bracket creep. We want to restore aspiration and force Canberra to live within its means, rather than raid the pockets of hard-working Australians through bracket creep. Bracket creep is a hidden tax which increases when inflation increases. Wage growth just pushes your income into a higher tax bracket, and you're no better off at the end of the day anyway.”
“There are a couple of elements in this bill that the coalition would be very happy to vote for, but, by forcing the parliament to consider the bill in its entirety, we cannot condemn Australians to this deceit and deception. This is just more political trickery by a Labor Party to try and force unrelated issues together to try and somehow wedge the coalition into a position. They think they're going to make some political hay in the future, because, with this prime minister, it's always about the political tricks, about the deceit, about the tactics in this place and nothing about the Australian people, where there is a fundamental breach of trust being committed, which this prime minister will never live down.”
“They've broken their promises so fundamentally with the Australian people that the biggest deficit in Australia is not in the budget; it's the deficit of trust between the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Australian people. Why would anyone believe a word these people say when they've fundamentally broken the contract between the people of Australia and their elected representatives? If you can't believe a candidate—in this case, the leader of the country—who said, 'I've told you 50 times. I won't be changing that,' and if you can't believe a commitment as blatant as that, what can you believe from the Australian Labor Party? What single promise at the next election can you believe from the Australian Labor Party? The political trickery in this bill is very well understood.”
“… I believe that when you go to an election and you make commitments, you should stick to them. Wow. That sounds a lot like democracy. That sounds a lot like what I talked about a couple of minutes ago. In all the elections I've contested, members of Labor, Liberals, Nationals and Greens put forward their policies, and the Australian people voted. The Prime Minister said: My word is my bond. … I believe that when you go to an election and you make commitments, you should stick to them. He also said: I will lead a government that keeps its promises. Why would any single Australian in the lead-up to the next election believe a single word this prime minister or this treasurer says when they say, 'We rule out death taxes,' or, 'We rule out some other tax'?”
“I campaigned on this attack on trust, because I'm an honest member for Spence.' That's what the member for Spence is going to say. He's going to say, 'I campaigned on all these things, and I'm very proud of my decision to do so.' I'll wait to hear him say that, because he'll be the first member opposite that did campaign on it. But I don't think he'll say that, member for Nicholls. If this prime minister sets a standard where he can't just be honest with the Australian people, why would we expect his caucus to be honest? This is a prime minister who has set the standard saying, 'We have a mandate for what we took to the Australian people. That is our mandate,' and he has no mandate for the changes before the House today. The Prime Minister also told Australians: My word is my bond.”
“The Prime Minister, in his own words, in his own words, acknowledged the absolute folly of his position after the federal election in May last year. The Prime Minister said: We have a mandate for what we took to the Australian people. That is our mandate. Think about that. That is a direct quote from the Prime Minister in May last year. The Prime Minister, in his own words, admitted that he doesn't have a mandate for this broken promise and the higher taxes he announced in the federal budget. I'm glad to see the member for Spence is here, because I'm sure the member for Spence is going to stand up and say: 'Actually, I campaigned strongly on this. I campaigned on these capital gains tax reforms. I campaigned on this negative gearing.”
“Walked in here with the Treasurer and committed the greatest deception that I've seen in my 18 years in this place, because, at every other election that I've been to, the members opposite have had the guts to put their policies before the Australian people. Remember, in 2019, the changes we're debating now were the policy positions of the former member for Maribyrnong, Bill Shorten. These were his policies. The member for McMahon very helpfully said, 'If you don't like our policies, don't vote for us.' There you go. The Australian people, given the choice on these policies, on this legislation, voted against them in 2019, but yet we're here today confirming Labor's great deceit. This is a government which is elected on broken promises and on trickery.”
“This government is based on a fundamental deceit and misleading of the Australian people because they did not have the guts or the strength of their convictions to say: 'These are our policies. We want to declare war on aspiration, and you should vote for us.' If they were so confident about these policies, then the member for Dobell and every other member in this place would have campaigned on these policies, but not one of them did. The Prime Minister told us in his own press conference: 'I've answered that question more than 50 times. There will be no changes to negative gearing, no changes to capital gains tax.' Old honest member for Grayndler said, 'I won't change those things,' and what's he done?”
“If it's so good for Australians, why wouldn't you want Australians to vote for it? Member for Dobell, if it were so good, why didn't you go to the election and say, 'This is my plan: increase capital gains tax and destroy the negative gearing system. Vote for me'? Why not take it to the Australian people? But, no, they didn't do that. They didn't do that at all. They whispered amongst themselves about 'when we get elected, we'll do something else' and 'when we get elected, let's see what we can get through the parliament' and 'don't tell those mugs out in the public called the Australian people' and 'don't possibly let them vote on our policies'. That is exactly what they've done. They've snuck into government on a foundation of deceit, deception and trickery, so much so that this is an illegitimate government.”
“Call me old-fashioned, because, in the seven elections I've contested, what's occurred is that the Labor Party puts forward policies, the Liberals and Nationals put forward, policies, the Greens put forward policies, and then the Australian people vote on it. They get to make a decision. That's called old-fashioned democracy. But what this prime minister has done with this bill, with this deception, with this absolute deceit to the Australian people, has thrown democracy out the window, and the only plan they have for the Australian people is higher taxes. What I've got to say will come as a shock to the members opposite who have been in here today in 90-second statements and who also spoke on this bill. They've got up and they've said just how good the budget is and how good these changes are going to be.”
“Who could blame people for not feeling confident about the future of our nation when they see a bill like this before the House today? They've experienced a declining standard of living. Australians have seen 15 interest rate rises under this government. The average mortgage holder is now paying more than $25,000 extra in interest payments since the Albanese government came to power in 2022. They may have turned on the TV on budget night hoping for just a little bit of good news, hoping that maybe this federal budget would help them out, and what they found out is that they had been misled and deceived completely by this prime minister in the lead-up to the 2025 election.”
“I must say at the outset, Australians just want their country back. When you go out and talk to people in our communities, they are angry; they are frustrated. They've been left behind by a prime minister who promised to govern for all Australians, and left behind by a prime minister who said, infamously: 'My word is my bond.' That is what the Prime Minister told the Australian people. In this bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026, we see exactly what this Prime Minister's promises are worth, because, after four years of the Albanese government, Australians are worse off, and our country is heading in the wrong direction. The most recent Mood of the Nation study found that 66 per cent of Australians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. And that has all been on Prime Minister Albanese's watch.”
“My question is to the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors. Older Australians are dying on the waiting list for Support at Home packages. Does the minister take any responsibility for the more than 4,800 older Australians who were deemed eligible for support but died in the past 12 months waiting to receive appropriate home care?”