LABOR’S RED INK BUDGET TO COST WIDE BAY FAMILIES AND BUSINESSES EVEN MORE

Federal Member for Wide Bay Llew O’Brien has described the Albanese Labor Government’s 2025-26 Budget as a red ink Budget that will cost Australian taxpayers more.

“The Budget papers are printed in black ink, but the accounting is all red ink,” Mr O’Brien said.

“Labor’s election eve red ink Budget recipe is filled with higher taxes, higher spending, higher debt, higher deficits, higher interest payments, topped up with higher immigration, all leading to higher cost of living pressures, that will cost Wide Bay families and businesses more.

The Albanese Labor Government’s 2025-26 Budget takes our gross national debt to $1.022 trillion and forecasts a deficit of $42.122 billion.

“This is your money that the Labor Government is putting on the credit card because it has failed to get expenditure under control, and taxpayers will be left to foot the bill and the interest. 

“Governments have no money of their own, they only have your money, and borrowings.  Labor is taxing and borrowing more and spending even more of your money right on the eve of an election to make up for their failures over the last three years,” Mr O’Brien said.

“This Albanese Labor Government’s bad decisions and wrong priorities are making everything so much harder, and now Labor is wallpapering over its cracks with taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars.

“The Albanese Labor Government broke its promise to lower power electricity prices by $275 based on 2022 prices and instead power bills have increased by more than 30 percent.

“Labor has presided over the biggest drop in living standards with families having lost $19,208 each year in purchasing power, and the typical Australian household with a mortgage is $50,000 worse off since Labor came to office.

“Labor has overseen more than 28,900 business collapses since coming to office and a 21 month long per capital recession.

“Labor’s immigration surge by more than 1,602,000 people, rising to 1,800,000 people, has created a housing, rental and homelessness crisis, and Labor’s reckless spending has fuelled inflation and interest rate hikes, stretching household budgets.

“When it comes to the tax hoax announced in the Budget, it doesn’t start until 2026 when gross debt rises to $1.092 trillion and won’t come into full effect until 2027-28 when gross debt rises to $1.161 trillion. 

“I don’t think many taxpayers will be lining up to thank Labor for giving seventy cents a day back to them, it is a tax hoax that has already been eroded by higher living costs caused by the Albanese Labor Government’s failure to tackle inflation, and interest on Labor’s trillion-dollar debt is rising.

“A $150 rebate on electricity bills costing $1.8 billion dollars will provide some relief to households but it is an admission of failure by the Albanese Labor Government of its expensive, unreliable intermittent energy agenda.

“Labor’s energy plan for Australia has turned into a grand green energy money laundering scheme with electricity prices so high that taxpayer subsidies are needed to help people pay their electricity bills. 

“Under Labor, every segment of the electricity market is subsidised, from the manufacture of intermittent energy components, to generation projects, to transmission lines, and now to households. 

“The inefficient churning of taxpayer funds, taking their money and giving it back to them, has become a necessary element for every step of Labor’s deeply flawed energy scheme.”

Mr O’Brien said the much anticipated and long awaited Bruce Highway Tiaro bypass doesn’t get a mention in the Budget papers.

“The Albanese Labor Government has been big on announcements and short on construction. 

“In spite of Federal funding being allocated to the Tiaro bypass by the former Coalition Government in 2021, the Albanese Government has done nothing to expedite delivery of this vital project and in the last three years Labor has failed to deliver any major projects to upgrade the dangerous section of the Bruce Highway between Curra and Maryborough.”

Mr O’Brien said Labor’s red ink Budget leaves regional families and businesses feeling the pain of Labor’s economic mismanagement. 

“The Albanese Labor Government is holding Wide Bay back, with higher taxes, higher mortgage repayments and higher grocery and energy bills.”