In her address to the Federal Budget Breakfast, the deputy leader of the opposition said this government had “put a premium on politics and deferred the hard decisions”.
“As a result, we have just seen a budget that we were told would be responsible but instead has locked in unrestrained spending, spending which is outstripping growth,” Ms Ley said.
“As we push past this year, Labor have locked in a decade of deficits with structural deficits that are frankly eye watering.
“And sadly, Australians are living through what happens when you have leaders that fail to make the difficult decisions.
“Two years into the Albanese Government, Australians are going backwards, they are poorer, and less secure in their lives.”
Ms Ley said Australians needed a budget that restored our standard of living by addressing the source of our inflation and cost of living pressures and restored prosperity and created opportunity with real support for small businesses and a proper plan to help young Australians into a home.
She said Australians also wanted restored budget discipline and honesty by restraining spending, bringing back the fiscal guardrails, a tax to GDP cap and delivering a structural surplus not a windfall surplus.
“Labor’s third Budget has failed all of these tests,” she said.
“Instead, Australia got a ‘buy now, pay later’ budget that does nothing to improve the structural health of the economy.
“We got sugar hits instead of structural change, the structural change we needed to restore the standard of living that Australians have lost since Labor took office.
“The fact is in this budget, Labor has added $315 billion of new spending since coming to office, at a time when we need restraint.
“That’s $30,000 of extra spending for every Australian household.
“Under Labor’s budgets to date, the typical Australian household with a mortgage is more than $35,000 worse off.
“Labor has fuelled the housing and rental crisis with unprecedented immigration at a time when housing approvals are at an 11 year low.
“The standard of living for Australians has collapsed by 7.5 per cent. That means, families are worse off than when Labor came to office, and I know the Australians I talk to can feel that everyday.
“The latest inflation data showed that under Labor, prices across the board have risen by close to 10 per cent, with the increase even greater for many essential items.
“Including electricity which is up 18 per cent, and gas is up 25 per cent.
“In this budget Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers have thrown it all on Afterpay, and that is not responsible, and it is not fair.”
There are some elements of the budget Ms Ley did welcome, however.
“To end on a positive note I will let you know some of the measures we can confirm we support.
“The $3.4 billion to add life changing and life saving medicines to PBS.
“The $1 billion towards accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence.
“The $925 million for the Leaving Violence Program, and the $20,000 instant asset write off extension to 30 June 2025 is welcome but we would like to see this restored to pre-pandemic levels of $30,000.”
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