Clare O’Neil:
Australian families are confronting real challenges. They’re worried about the cost of living. They’re worried about whether their kids are ever going to be able to get into a home of their own. Now they might have tuned in tonight to hear what Angus Taylor had to say about this, and what they got was absolutely nothing. Instead of real answers to these problems, what they got was uncosted nonsense that won’t build a single home or pay a single bill for an Australian family.
We were promised by Claire Chandler and Tim Wilson that tonight’s Budget in reply would be fully costed and fully offset. What a joke. Instead, this blew $100 billion black hole in the Coalition’s plan for our country. Now, Angus Taylor is a Liberal straight out of central casting, and we know what that means. It means they’re coming after Medicare, they’re coming after education and they’re coming after the services that your family relies on.
We took a very different approach to our Budget that we delivered on Tuesday night. We deeply recognized the situation that Australian families are facing, and that’s why we thought deeply about how we can help them, and we can help them straight away. Jim Chalmers is delivering a tax cut again for every single working Australian. That’s 13 million people, the fifth tax cut that our government has given since we’ve been in office.
And of course, importantly, we brought forward a big national plan to address our country’s housing crisis. We want the young people of this nation to get ahead. We want them to get ahead in a home of their own, and our Budget will help them do it. Happy to take questions.
Journalist:
When it comes to the idea of indexing – indexing tax brackets. This is something that hasn’t been tried since the 70s, and it moved away pretty quickly after it was tried. Could you explain why the government wouldn’t back a policy like that?
O’Neil:
Well, this is Angus Taylor’s purported policy. He can come up and explain to you exactly how this is going to play out and what it’s going to mean. It looks to me like something he came up with on the back of a napkin. I mean, can you imagine coming forward with a proposal like this without a proper costing? Our initial look at this suggests that in some cases, this is actually going to mean a tax increase for some lower‑income Australians. And let’s face it, that would be right on form for Angus Taylor, who took from the last election a policy to increase taxes on every single Australian taxpayer.
Journalist:
What do you make of their threats to not support Labor’s measures in the Budget, specifically around capital gains tax and negative gearing? Do you think that that’s of concern for you?
O’Neil:
Look, it’s really clear to me over the last couple of days that the only people in our country who think that the status quo on housing is working, is Angus Taylor and his colleagues. They are the only people that are not getting that young people have been locked out of housing, that we’ve got serious housing issues that our government needs to come forward and confront.
Now there is no question about this, we already had the boldest and most ambitious housing agenda a Commonwealth government has had for 70 years. We built on that on Tuesday night. We are dead serious about this, because we’re worried about the young people of this country. We want people in this country to have a realistic aspiration to own their own home, and we are going to help them realise it.
Journalist:
[Inaudible]
O’Neil:
I’d encourage Angus Taylor to come up to you tonight and share some of the detail about his thinking here, but I have a sneaky suspicion that he’s not going to do that, because there isn’t any detail. This is a complete thought bubble, uncosted nonsense, that is not going to help a single person at home pay their bills or get ahead here. In contrast, Labor has delivered now 5 tax cuts to the Australian people. We are fiercely committed to helping you earn more and keep more of what you earn.
Journalist:
[Inaudible]
O’Neil:
Angus Taylor is the person to be asking these questions to. One thing I do know is that this is an uncosted policy. Now, when you see a Liberal with an uncosted policy, you should be getting very nervous, because these people know only one thing: that is cutting Medicare, cutting health, cutting education and cutting services that your family relies on. What –
Journalist:
What about the principle of indexing tax brackets? You say this is Angus Taylor’s idea. Plenty of other economists have suggested it over the years. A lot of economists quite like it as an idea. But what’s your response to the broader concept of indexing tax brackets?
O’Neil:
Really respectful of that question, I’m not here tonight to debate tax principles. I’m here to talk to the Australian people. You could do real, meaningful, practical things that we are going to do to help them in their lives. Now, our Budget was all about that practical experience that Australians are confronting, delivering their fifth tax cut under the Albanese government, and making sure that we turn around a decade’s worth of declining home ownership in this country.
Journalist:
Minister, there was obviously, this is an economic response, but there was a lot in this about social cohesion and. And migration. Angus Taylor used the term ‘process and deport 70,000 over‑stayers’, and he also linked what he calls mass migration to the Bondi shooting. How do you think this speech will impact social cohesion in Australia?
O’Neil:
Well what an extraordinary thing to do to on one hand, start talking about social cohesion, and the next point the finger at migrant communities for things that aren’t working in his eyes, in this country. I think it’s a complete contradiction and I don’t get into these debates. What I would say to Angus Taylor is that you can’t out‑One Nation, One Nation. If people like what Pauline Hanson is putting down, they’re going to vote for them, not for you. I think we should take a much more principled approach here. We’re a great migrant country, and I’ll continue to defend that.
Journalist:
Can the government been trusted on its migration targets, [inaudible]. So is the government actually able to do enough to get it down to the level where it’s sustainable?
O’Neil:
Migration has decreased by 45 per cent from its post‑COVID highs. We’re committed to bringing migration down, but let’s not pretend that this is the answer to all of the housing woes confronting our country. Our country, it’s a piece of the puzzle. It’s not the whole puzzle. What we need to do is bring migration down and lift our home building numbers, and that’s exactly what our government is doing.
Journalist:
Minister, what do you make of his suggestion to strip 17 welfare payments from non‑citizens? Are you concerned that it could affect permanent residents or waiting to become [inaudible]
O’Neil:
Well, this is the thing that Angus Taylor is not saying. He’s using this word non‑citizens. What he really means is permanent residents. He’s talking about permanent residents who access things like the Commonwealth pension. He’s talking about permanent residents who access things like the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Now you can point the finger at migrants, but permanent residents – many of these people have lived in our country, literally for decades, and I reckon most people watching at home right now probably know a permanent resident somewhere in their orbit who’s lived here, who’s lived the life of an Australian and hasn’t got around to filling in that paperwork. Now we’re talking about people who have contributed, paid their taxes and now Angus Taylor wants to strip them of basic services that are available to Australians.
Journalist:
Angus Taylor also mentions a way to fix the housing crisis would be to strip regulation like the National Construction Code. But what would it mean for him to cut the code, as he says, from 2,000 pages down to 200?
O’Neil:
Yeah. I mean, it’s hard to pick what the most ridiculous part of that speech was, but I think for me as Housing Minister, this was probably it. The National Construction Code is a document that’s too complex, I’ll acknowledge that, and we are reducing it down, at the moment. The idea, though, that we are going to strip out all of the standards that make us build safe housing in this country, all of the standards that make sure that we build quality homes, so that when you buy a home, you can be confident that you’re going to have a bill that stands up. He wants to strip all these standards away. It doesn’t make any sense.
And what I’d say to Angus Taylor is, you know, we know these people don’t have a sensible thing to say about housing. They sat on the government benches for 9 years, and for most of that time, couldn’t be bothered either having a Housing Minister, but I just encourage him to educate himself a little bit about the importance of these rules. We need to reduce red tape and regulation, but I don’t think we want to throw out the baby with the bath water when it comes to housing, safety and quality in this country.
Journalist:
Both Angus Taylor and Simon Kennedy. Angus Taylor, tonight, Simon Kennedy, in the last 2 question times have attacked the Prime Minister’s use of negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts. Obviously, there’s been change in the Budget. You concerned this attack line might have some salience with young people who are against these policies and do see ministers in the government having benefited from their use?
O’Neil:
The first thing I’d say is that I think it implies that there’s an argument being made here that there’s something wrong with people who’ve been using the tax system exactly as it was established and intended. And that’s not the case at all for people who have ever used negative gearing in this country, you haven’t done the wrong thing. You’ve used the tax system that politicians like me are accountable for. The question for us is that, is that the right settings for our for our country as we go forward?
Now, Angus Taylor’s talked about this idea of pulling up the ladder. It’s pretty easy to come from someone who basically was born on the top of a ladder. The truth is that most Australians don’t have the privilege that he was born with. We want to make sure that Australians of ordinary means and ordinary incomes get access to their first home. There is no more important aspiration for young people in this country than getting into a home of their own, and Labor is going to help them realise it.
Journalist:
Can you confirm that in the future, that Australians will actually pay lower tax on the Labor because if they are getting if they’re subject to the new changes under CGT, and then they’re getting more back under the changes that Angus Taylor announced tonight. Will they be better off on the Labor or a Coalition?
O’Neil:
What I can tell you is that every budget, we look for opportunities to return income to Australians. We want Australians to get ahead. We want you to earn more and keep more of what you earn. That’s why you’ve already had 5 tax cuts under Labor and we’ll keep finding those opportunities for you. Thanks very much, guys.