Jane - thank you for your spirited words.
You're a fighter, a doer, and a superb deputy.
Friends - please put your hands together for Jane Hume. I want to specially commend two people.
Andrew Hirst has given so much to our party.
As a staffer doing the hard yards in opposition - and the harder yards serving a prime minister.
As our Federal Director for almost nine years.
Our 2019 victory was called a "miracle".
Hirsty was the man at the centre of the campaign that made that miracle possible. Hirsty - we thank you, we salute you, and we wish you well.
John Olsen has had an esteemed career. As a mayor, as a Senator, and as a Premier.
We've been privileged to have John serve as our Federal President for six years.
John - thank you for your service and wise counsel to many leaders, over many years.
I'd also like to congratulate our 28th Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, on his election as our Federal President.
Tony - you brought us back to government in 2013 - the victory of all victories.
We're energised by your appointment to this standard-bearer role.
As you said, our country is in trouble - it's got to be all hands-on deck.
I'm looking forward to working with you to take down this disastrous Labor government.
I also congratulate Alexander Downer - one of our finest Foreign Ministers and thinkers - as well as Caroline Inge, Caroline Di Russo, and Geoff Page as our Federal Vice Presidents.
And I acknowledge all those who serve our cause at the federal, state, and local levels.
My thanks to our leaders, elected members, office holders, advisers, and staff.
A special thanks to my many federal colleagues here today who are all part of a united committed team.
Most importantly, I commend and thank all our true believers - our members and volunteers.
You're the lifeblood of our party - and your work has never been more important.
FIGHT LIKE HELL
Friends:
I know recent years have been difficult for the Liberals. But there are certain events that can galvanise a party. Events that are a rallying call.
Events that stir a nation.
Labor's disastrous Budget is such an event. Let's be clear.
Anthony Albanese has started a war on aspiration. A war on the very essence of being Australian.
A war on the soul of our nation. Friends:
We're going to fight like hell and win this war.
We're going to fight like hell and defeat this rotten Labor government.
We're going to fight like hell to protect our way of life and restore Australians'
standard of living.
This budget has reminded Australians that the Prime Minister's word is never his bond.
He promised Australians they'd be better off under his leadership.
That was a lie.
Under Labor, Australia has experienced the worst collapse in living standards in the developed world.
Anthony Albanese promised Australians that their power bills would go down by $275 a year.
Another lie.
Under Labor, power prices have soared by nearly 40 per cent.
Anthony Albanese promised Australians they would have cheaper mortgages.
Another lie.
Under Labor, Australians with a typical mortgage are now paying almost $30,000 a year more in interest.
Anthony Albanese promised that there would be no changes to negative gearing and no changes to capital gains tax.
He ruled out changes, in his own words, "For the 50th time."
It was the mother of all lies.
The most egregious of all his broken promises.
No Australian can trust another word that comes out of this bloke's mouth - he is a chronic liar.
Of course, Labor's aspiration-killing Budget was revealing in another way too.
This Prime Minister doesn't want to empower people.
He wants power over people.
The Prime Minister has often said he wants Labor to be "the natural party of government."
That statement is as entitled as it is illiberal.
For Anthony Albanese, political life has always been about entrenching Labor rule. His main interest is to consolidate and centralise power.
The national interest is a distant second.
Friends:
Battlelines have been drawn with this Budget.
It's clear that the Coalition and Labor stand for completely different things and have completely different visions for our country.
Let me set out those distinctions - what we're for, and what Labor is for. We're for smaller, better government that gets off Australians' backs.
Labor is for bigger government that reaches further into Australians' lives.
We're for government that serves the will of the people - that politics is a means to an end.
Labor is for people serving the will of the government - that politics is an end in itself.
We're for an economy driven by enterprising small and family businesses and a thriving private sector - all self-directed.
Labor is for an economy directed by government-run entities, big unions, and large controllable corporations.
We're for individual choice, empowerment, reward for hard work, and wealth creation.
Labor is for conformity, dependence, equalisation of outcomes, and wealth redistribution.
We're for Australians owning their own home - especially a free-standing house with the space to raise a family.
Labor is for government that owns a stake in Australians' homes - or Australians renting forever.
We're for parents having choice in childcare.
Labor is for a one-size-fits-all childcare system.
We're for unity being our strength - a unity built on respect for individuals, love of family, and a commitment to Australia.
Labor divides Australians based on race, religion, and gender for political gain.
We're for putting the national interest first.
Labor is for prioritising internationalist agendas ahead of the national interest. We're for an economy that rewards effort and helps Australians to get ahead. And that's why we will axe Labor's toxic taxes.
We're for Australians having affordable and reliable energy.
And that's why we will scrap Labor's net zero.
We're for restoring the dream of home ownership - especially for young Australians.
And that's why we will end Labor's mass migration.
And we will always put Australians first. Friends:
If it talks like a socialist, spends Iike one, and taxes like one - it's a socialist. And that's where this Prime Minister is taking our country.
We must fight and defeat Labor's socialist vision if we're going to restore our
standard of living and protect our way of life.
This is our opportunity to get Australians behind our vision for a fairer, freer, and better Australia.
I began to outline that vision in my Budget Reply two weeks ago. Today, I want to reinforce the fronts where we will fight Labor.
AXING LABOR'S TOXIC TAXES
Friends:
If Anthony Albanese wants to force toxic taxes on Australians, he should have the guts to take them to an election.
But he won't because he is a liar and a coward.
These taxes are so toxic that not even Labor premiers support them.
First, there's Labor's changes to negative gearing.
Labor's Budget Papers show that its changes will reduce the supply of homes by 35,000 over the decade.
These changes aren't a level-up for young Australians wanting to own a home.
They're a home ownership lock out.
This is a tax on housing - pure and simple.
And when government whacks a tax on something, you get less of it.
There will be fewer houses available for young Australians to buy or to rent. Then there's Labor's scrapping of the 50 per cent Capital Gains Tax discount. This is a tax increase - pure and simple.
A tax on savings, on taking risks, on having a go.
A tax on Australians - especially young Australians - who have invested in shares, crypto, exchange traded funds, and other assets - often to build enough for a home deposit
Labor plans to tax these investments more heavily - to steal from people's savings. Labor's CGT changes will shut down growth enabling investment and obliterate opportunity.
And these taxes will kneecap so many small businesses, start-ups, and farmers. Australians are expressing their frustration, often in satirical ways.
Albanese is incensed by the torrent of memes depicting him as a business "co-owner" and "co-founder" who never puts his shoulder to the wheel.
To this thin-skinned PM its all misinformation.
But he has no understanding of the pain his taxes will inflict because he has never worked a day in a small business.
There's also Labor's new taxes on trusts.
Trusts are used by hard-working families and small businesses throughout Australia.
They will pay big new 30 per cent minimum tax forcing billions of dollars of restructuring costs, stamp duty, and just another impost for exhausted small business owners to deal with.
They're even taxing discretionary testamentary trusts.
This is a wicked death tax - pure and simple. Friends:
Labor's toxic taxes are an assault on aspiration and an attack on every Australian.
And the justifiable public backlash to this Budget is of a magnitude unlike any I have seen.
Already, the Prime Minister is talking about carve-outs. But carve-outs aren't enough.
Labor's toxic taxes need an axe.
Of course, there's no more harmful tax than Labor's inflation tax.
Labor has lost control of its spending.
That's why Australia will soon be $1 trillion dollars in debt. That's why inflation is stubborn.
The higher Labor's inflation goes - and the longer it lasts - the more the government takes from Australians.
And that suits Labor just fine.
Because the Albanese Government needs to fund its spending addiction. And when Labor runs out of money, it comes after yours.
Labor is only too happy to see inflation push more Australians into higher tax brackets so it can take more of their income in tax.
Bracket creep is their best friend.
But we're going to stop Labor's dishonest inflation tax.
As I announced in my Budget Reply, the Coalition will index tax thresholds to inflation.
Our policy will protect Australians' incomes from inflation and put a permanent restraint on the growth of government.
Never again will a government be able to steal from Australians year-after-year via stealth.
Let me give you two examples.
Let's assume inflation is at the Reserve Bank's target of 2.5 per cent and wages are growing by 3 per cent.
Heather is a hairdresser earning $70,000 a year.
Under Labor, her real wage gains will be completely taxed away.
But under our Tax Back Guarantee, Heather will get a tax cut of about $250 in Year 1, rising to about $1,000 a year in year 4.
Paul is a plumber earning $140,000 a year.
Under Labor, his real wage gains will be taxed away too.
But under our Tax Back Guarantee, Paul will get a tax cut of about $250 in Year 1, rising to about $1,200 in year 4.
Jim Chalmers has given the game away.
When the Treasurer says indexation will cost "a quarter of a trillion dollars over the decade", that's the figure he wants to steal from Australians through bracket creep.
Jim is planning to take $250 billion extra in income tax from Australians. Not on our watch.
Our policy is real generational tax reform.
And our policy will preserve the aspiration and reward for hard work that makes our nation tick.
SCRAPPING LABOR'S NET ZERO
Friends:
We're also going to scrap Labor's net zero.
We're rejecting Labor's ideological energy policy and restoring pragmatic energy policy.
Australia isn't undergoing a rapid, pain-free energy transition - as Labor pretends. No nation is.
We've seen the shut down of always-on power like coal and gas.
And the unbalanced scale up of expensive weather dependent industrial-scale renewables and transmission lines.
The consequences have been dire:
Skyrocketing electricity prices for families, businesses, and factories. Businesses moving offshore to where electricity is cheaper.
A hollowing out of critical sovereign industries. And a flight of capital.
A desecration of our most magnificent agricultural land.
Labor's prioritisation of net zero and emissions reduction above all else is destroying our economy and making our nation energy scarce.
And the fuel crisis reinforces how dependent we are on other countries for critical supplies - like jet fuel, diesel, and fertiliser.
Australia must change direction.
Under a Coalition government I lead, we will scrap Labor's great big carbon tax - the so-called Safeguard Mechanism.
Indeed, we will scrap Labor's crippling carbon taxes wherever we find them.
On mining, manufacturing, electricity, vehicles, and imports.
Carbon taxes make Australian industry less competitive, and push costs onto households and businesses.
That's why the carbon taxes will go. As will Labor's climate bureaucracy. Labor's net zero agency - gone.
Labor's powerlines to nowhere - gone.
Labor's tax on the family car and utes - gone.
We're also going to end Labor's regime of corporate welfare.
The Future Made in Australia agenda with its National Reconstruction Fund has been wasteful and ineffective.
Handouts, bailouts, and carve-outs are being used to prop-up green energy rent seekers and to indulge in pie-in-the-sky schemes, like green hydrogen.
We will save taxpayers billions.
Most importantly, under a Coalition government I lead, we will pursue a policy of energy abundance.
More energy means cheaper energy and a lower cost-of-living.
Cheaper energy means we can innovate, make, and build things of ambition once again.
And cheaper energy means we can re-industrialise in key areas.
We will back any technology that can deliver affordable and reliable energy: coal, gas, oil, hydro, nuclear, batteries, and renewables in the right places, like rooftop solar.
And we will scrap the moratorium on nuclear power.
Labor's claim that Australia can be a "renewable energy superpower" is a utopian fantasy divorced from reality.
But Australia certainly can be an energy superpower. If we dig and drill.
If we attract investment to build new power stations and new refineries. And if we embrace any technology - old and new - with only one condition: It can deliver abundant and affordable energy for Australians.
I believe it is our moral duty to deliver cheap and reliable energy for Australians, especially for those that can least afford it.
That's what we need to restore our standard of living.
It's time to take the energy fight to Labor with conviction and moral clarity.
ENDING LABOR'S MASS MIGRATION
Friends:
Cooma is often called the gateway to the Snowy Mountains.
After the Second World War - as Australia grew fast - Cooma became a great immigrant town.
Many migrants who worked on the construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme came through Cooma and made it their home.
People from places which had been at war with each other only a few years earlier.
My grandfather, William Hudson, was the Commissioner and Chief Engineer of that pivotal nation-building project - he was incredibly proud of the migration programme he was part of.
I grew up in Cooma.
And I remember well the migrant influence.
The stoic and driven people with an entrepreneurial spirit.
The clubs, associations, businesses, cafes, and restaurants they started and ran.
These new Australians made a commitment to embrace the Australian way of life that was met with widespread admiration.
In Cooma, I came to appreciate two rules for successful immigration. A country must only bring in people who will share its values.
A country must only bring in numbers of people it can cope with.
Break these rules, and citizens will lose all confidence in a migration program and the government running it.
The Labor Party has broken both these rules.
Since Labor was elected, it has brought in a record 1.4 million people - about the population of Adelaide - in just three-and-a-half years.
That number accounted for 80 per cent of our population growth over the same period.
If these numbers don't constitute mass migration, then I don't know what does.
With Labor having brought in too many people - too quickly - it's also brought in some people with the wrong values.
Under Labor, the numbers are too high, and the standards are too low. Both must change.
We must shut the door to those who want to import the hatred and violence of another place to Australia.
People who don't want to join and embrace Australia, but people who want to change Australia to suit them.
The vast majority of migrants who have come to Australia have worked hard, raised families, built businesses, supported the growth of our nation, and become loyal citizens.
My criticism is directed at a Labor Party that's lost control of our migration system.
One of the worst consequences of this failure is a housing market where supply simply hasn't kept up, exacerbated by falling housing construction.
Many young Australians are giving up on ever owning a home. My resolve is clear:
We must restore the dream of home ownership for all Australians - whatever their background.
We will cap immigration numbers based on the number of homes constructed each year.
We will also increase the supply of housing through targeted investment in infrastructure that will release new homes, and by slashing the 2000 pages of the National Construction Code that is demanding 'woke palaces'.
Never again will a government be able to bring in more people than our housing can support.
PUTTING AUSTRALIANS FIRST
Friends:
When I travel around the country, Australians from all walks of life tell me that they feel like second-class citizens under Labor.
Under a Coalition government I lead, Australians will never feel like that again. I will always put Australians first.
Axing Labor's toxic taxes is about Australians keeping more of their money.
Scrapping net zero is about getting power prices down for Australians.
Capping immigration numbers based on available housing is about getting more Australians into homes.
Putting Australian values at the centre of immigration policy is about bringing in people who strengthen our unity - not people who create division.
And restricting welfare programs to Australians is about ensuring that taxes paid in this country support citizens of this country.
As I said in my Budget Reply, we will reserve access to housing programs, the NDIS, and 17 different welfare programs for Australian citizens.
This policy will be grandfathered.
Non-citizens who are existing recipients of these benefits won't be impacted.
Since we announced this policy, the overwhelming reaction has been one of surprise.
So many Australians had no idea that Labor was using their taxes to fund welfare and even home deposits for non-citizens.
Surprise has also turned to anger.
Because while supporting non-citizens, Labor has cut the Private Health Insurance rebate for Australians over 65, and taken away funding from veterans.
Labor's Budget clearly puts Australians second.
The Coalition will put Australians first.
Our welfare policy changes are based on an important principle: If you commit to Australia, then Australia will commit to you.
The day after my Budget Reply, Anthony Albanese made it clear that he doesn't draw a distinction between citizens and non-citizens. Another example of this Prime Minister's lack of moral clarity. Citizenship is a privilege.
Citizenship must come with benefits that are reserved for citizens.
And that's what the Coalition is committed to.
CLOSE
Friends:
We must do whatever we can to defeat the worst Labor government in our nation's history.
Labor has started a war on aspiration.
A war on the very essence of being Australian. A war on the soul of our nation.
We must fight and win this war.
Across the country, young Australians are seeing the ladder of opportunity being ripped away by Labor.
Across the country, Australians running small and family businesses are seething at the Albanese Government's toxic taxes and debilitating red tape.
Across the country, so many Australians feel like second-class citizens under Labor.
Many of these Australians - who have never been political - are speaking up for the first time.
We will never have a better opportunity than this. To rally people to our cause.
To encourage Australians to join us in the fight by supporting and joining the Liberal Party.
Because ours is the only party capable of defeating and replacing this Labor government.
Friends:
The time is now.
Our job, every day, is to reach out to our fellow Australians.
Tell them about our vision for a fairer, freer, and better Australia. Tell them that we need them to help save Australia.
This fight will not be won from the sidelines.
It will be won by Australians who are prepared to stand up and sign up. I say to those Australians:
Join us.
Fight with us.
Because Australia is worth fighting for, now more than ever. Thank you.
