Topics: 2025 Federal Budget

 

E&OE

 

KIERAN GILBERT: Joining me live in the studio is the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor. Was that a tough call to oppose tax cuts?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, I tell you what, what we see in this budget is a budget for the next five weeks, not the next five years. And it's not a hard call to say that's completely unacceptable for the Australian people. The truth is what they're offering Australians is 70 cents a day in a year's time, at a time when a typical Australian family with a mortgage has had to find $50,000 after tax that they weren't expecting to find. So, this is a band aid on a bullet wound. It's not a solution to the underlying problem here.

 

KIERAN GILBERT: So, would you go further?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, what I will say is that our focus is on restoring Australians standard of living and making sure we get back to at least where we were when we were last in power. We're down 8% for a typical Australian family on their real disposable incomes, the standard of living. We've got to get back to that and beyond.

 

KIERAN GILBERT: Sounds like you'll go further than what Labor's pitched on tax?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, you know what? What we need is an economy that works for hard working Australians and it's broken for hard working Australians right now. And that's why Labor is having to put band aids on bullet wounds. That's why they're having to do these sorts of things because they've completely failed to manage the economy. If you want the standard of living of Australians to improve, you have to be able to manage the economy. Labor can't and that's why they end up having to do these things. But you know, it's a cruel hoax. This is just an election bribe. 70 cents a day in a year's time. Seriously, Australians need solutions that are actually sustainable and work for them over a long period of time.

 

KIERAN GILBERT: It might be a bribe, but you know, people like tax cuts. And if it's a top up tax cut, as the Treasurer argues, if you knock this back, surely you'd have to go further, would you not?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: I'll tell you what I find people want is they want to be able to have a standard of living that is going forwards, not backwards. To go backwards 8% in two and a half years, it's never happened before, Kieran. This is completely unprecedented. And so Labor's answer to that is give them 70 cents a day in a year's time. This is not a solution.

 

KIERAN GILBERT: You're not ruling out going further?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, I'll tell you what is needed. We need strong economic management. That includes delivering affordable, reliable energy, more supply into the system, making sure that we fix the housing supply crisis we've got in this country, which means balancing immigration and supply. Record levels of immigration under this government. We're approaching 2 million new people in just five years. 2 million in just five years. The forecasts keep going up because Labor's lost control of immigration in this country. And if you've lost control of immigration and your housing supply is broken, then it's a complete disaster for housing affordability. So, getting to the solution, the underlying problem and solving the source of the problem, not just dealing with symptoms, is what Australians want and need right now.

 

KIERAN GILBERT: Yes, but in terms of symptoms, people do, as I said, households that have been struggling would appreciate tax relief, further tax relief. I just wonder if you do adopt more generous tax cuts, how do you make the numbers stack up? Say with nuclear and more Defence spending and so on.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: The idea that the answer to every Australians problem is the government stepping in has never worked before and won't work. What we need is an economy that works for hard working Australians. Middle Australia is seeing an economy that's broken for them. The numbers don't lie on this and I see it every single day when I'm out there. They can't afford to pay the grocery bills, they can't afford to pay the insurance bills, they're struggling to pay the mortgage. And Labor's answer to this is 70 cents a day in a year's time. And meanwhile you've got deficits as far as the eye can see. It's not free money. Someone has to pay for all of this, Kieran. $170 billion of deficits in just five years. That's $6,000 for every Australian. This is how Labor runs the show and it's a road to ruin, Kieran. It absolutely is. Red ink as far as the eye can see. There is nothing sustainable about any of this.

 

KIERAN GILBERT: The fiscal, the spending credibility, you see that as an equity for the Coalition. So, you've got the nuclear plan, you've promised more Defence spend. How do you navigate this with the tax cuts? Can you bump them up?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: We will have a stronger budget position than Labor's because that's important to beating inflation, boosting growth, backing small business that's getting crowded out by government spending. And we have to at the same time fix the housing supply, make sure we've got a balance of immigration with housing, get affordable and reliable energy into our system and that means in the longer term, zero emissions nuclear power plants and, in the short term, getting more gas into the system and making sure the coal fired generators don't leave prematurely. This is not complicated, but it's all the work Labor has completely failed to do, Kieran. That's why Australians are worse off. And then they end up having to hand down a budget which has got red ink as far as the eye can see. Make no mistake about it. Because they haven't got solutions to the underlying problem. They offer election bribes.

 

KIERAN GILBERT: So maybe no tax cuts?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, we have already announced important tax cuts and let me name two of them. One is accelerated depreciation for small businesses because they need an incentive to invest. When they invest, they create jobs, they drive prosperity, they help to support rising real wages. The second one is we will not be putting in place a capital gains tax on unrealised capital gains. And that is what Labor's proposed. I mean, these are completely inappropriate tax imposts on Australians and we will absolutely be ensuring that Australians who are running small businesses, who have superannuation where they get capital gains are not being taxed by a bad Labor government.

 

KIERAN GILBERT: Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor. I very much appreciate your time. We'll talk to you soon.

 

ENDS