Australian news and politics live: Angus Taylor unveils migrant welfare crackdown, tax relief in Budget reply

Under the coalition’s National Security Strategy there would be a priority focus on energy security, which the Opposition Leader says would including prolonging coal-fired power plants.

“While renewables have a role in our energy mix – especially rooftop solar and home batteries – they aren’t a rapid replacement for fossil fuels,” Mr Taylor told Parliament.

“Fossil fuels still deliver most of our energy needs. Australia isn’t undergoing a rapid, pain-free energy transition – as Labor pretends.”

“Tonight, I announce that a Coalition government will work with coal-fired power plant owners to keep them running as long and as hard as possible to get electricity prices down.”

Angus Taylor has announced a future Coalition government will develop a National Security Strategy and appoint a dedicated National Security Adviser.

The opposition leader has told Parliament that “central to that strategy will be defence”.

“Unlike Labor with its accounting trickery, the Coalition will commit to spending at least three per cent of GDP on defence.”

A new Coalition indexation policy revisits a plan for tax relief Mr Taylor wanted to offer at least year’s election.

Independent economist Chris Richardson said it made economic sense, but the big question was how the Coalition would pay for it.

“This is a cost that builds pretty substantially over time,” he said.

“What it’s saying is the system intentionally hands politicians a bit of extra money each year (via bracket creep). This takes away that flexibility from them.”

The plan would cost the Budget’s bottom line $23.2 billion over the four years after the next election, according to analysis by this masthead using the Parliamentary Budget Office’s build your own budget tool.

By 2035-36, it will cost $141.5 billion.

Businesses with turnover of less than $10 million would be able to immediately deduct assets of up to $50,000 – on a permanent basis, under a new Coalition policy.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has unveiled the proposal as part of his budget reply, in a move “to lift confidence in our country and encourage business investment”

“To boost investment, we also need to free the economy from the government’s chains. Laws are too complex and obstruct enterprise,” Mr Taylor told Parliament.

The Opposition Leader has unveiled a new Future Generations Fund which would be used to pay down debt and invest in nation-building infrastructure using revenue windfalls from revenue upgrades.

Angus Taylor says since Labor came to office, the government has received almost half-a-trillion dollars in revenue upgrades, mostly driven by higher resource prices.

“Where resource tax revenues are higher than forecast, we will bank 80 cents in every dollar into a Future Generations Fund,” Mr Taylor told Parliament in his Budget reply speech.

“This Fund will help pay down Labor’s trillion dollars of debt. And it will help to invest in nation-building infrastructure. Twenty-five per cent of funding will be for our regions that have been neglected by Labor.”

The Opposition Leader has confirmed a coalition government would restrict NDIS support and 17 different welfare benefits for Australians only, in a move he says will save taxpayers billions.

The move which would end Jobseeker, Youth Allowance, and the Family Tax Benefit for Australian residents who are not citizens.

“My message is this: If you commit to Australia, then Australia will commit to you,” Mr Taylor has told Parliament.

“After all, the taxes paid by hard working Australians should support Australians.”

In his first budget reply since becoming Opposition Leader, Angus Taylor has outlined his hope for “a fairer, freer, and better Australia for all”, where ordinary wage earners can afford to buy a home and raise a child.

Opening his formal budget reply, Mr Taylor has described his vision for “an Australia where we innovate, make, and build things of ambition – and farm, mine, and drill with determination”.

“An Australia where a single income earner – on an ordinary wage – has enough for a home deposit and to pay off a mortgage steadily.”

“An Australia where a mum or a dad can afford to take time away from work to do the most worthwhile thing in life – raise a child.”

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor will deliver his budget reply speech at 7.30pm AEST this evening.

He is expected to outline the “biggest tax reform in a generation” where typical Australian workers would receive additional financial relief of around $1000 a year.

Follow along for all the details.

The Prime Minister has been challenged to rule out controversial ideas like death taxes as the Opposition intensifies its attacks on Anthony Albanese’s broken promises and accuses him of personally benefitting from Labor’s controversial Budget changes.

“Labor promised not to change housing taxes, yet it misled. Labor promised not to change investment taxes, yet it deceived. Labor promised not to change taxes on farmers and small businesses, yet it bent the truth,” Angus Taylor told Parliament.

“The Prime Minister promised his word was his bond. When did the Prime Minister decide that the truth doesn’t matter?” the Opposition Leader demanded to know of Mr Albanese on Thursday.

Hitting back at the attack, the PM mocked his opponent for removing Sussan Ley as the Liberal party’s first female and for his own tax policies at last year’s election where the Coalition suffered a massive defeat.

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ANALYSIS

For Liberals, tonight is the moment the fight back against One Nation begins.

Leader Angus Taylor intends to give a speech in response to the Budget that he hopes will electrify conservatives and win back millions of voters upset, bewildered or alienated by the new Australia.

Immigration — not migrants — is the target. Mr Taylor wants the number who arrive each year determined by the level of housing and apartment construction in the year before.

Having mused about the idea for some time without running into major objections, Mr Taylor will formalise the solution tonight.

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