Statements by Members – The Budget – Speech in the House of Representatives 24/06/2026

Mr LLEW O’BRIEN (Wide Bay) (13:39): The Prime Minister and every Labor member of this parliament went to the last election asking the Australian people to trust them. What has the Albanese Labor government given the Australian people in return? Broken promises and betrayal in the form of tax increases on savings, investments, housing and small business. They didn’t have the guts to tell us about their so-called reforms before the election, and now they won’t take their new taxes to an election. Instead, Labor with their political soulmates the Greens have done a deal that attacks aspiration and punishes young Australians who are trying to get ahead.

Labor’s tax grabs are designed to hurt people who are trying to get ahead by using the same taxation arrangements that their parents had access to and the Prime Minister had access to, to secure his financial future. The government’s failure to get its spending and borrowing under control means higher taxes, higher inflation and higher interest rates to come as it hobbles future generations with Labor’s trillion dollars of debt. The coalition will get Labor’s expenditure under control and axe Labor’s toxic taxes.