SECOND READING SPEECH – TAX REFORM BILL
SENATE

Monday, 22 June 2026

**Check against delivery**

E&OE……………

Mark my words.

This legislation will be remembered for what it failed to do.

It failed to create the opportunities Australians need to get ahead.

Opportunity for the small business owner.

Opportunity for the apprentice.

Opportunity for parents trying to build a better future for their children.

Because governments should ultimately be judged by the opportunities they create.

Not for themselves.

For the people they serve.

The opportunity to start a business.

The opportunity to learn a trade.

The opportunity to buy a home.

The opportunity to raise a family.

And the opportunity for the next generation to do better than the last.

That is the test this legislation should be measured against.

And by that test, it fails.

Five budgets into the Albanese Government, Australians are asking a simple question:

Are we better off?

Australians are working harder and getting less in return.

Home ownership feels further out of reach.

The cost of living continues to bite.

Yet instead of addressing those challenges, Labor has decided the answer is more tax.

These changes are being presented as reform, but reform should make it easier for Australians to get ahead, not harder.

For generations there was an understanding in this country.

If you worked hard.

If you saved your money.

If you invested wisely.

If you started a business.

If you took responsibility for your family.

You could get ahead.

That was the Australian promise.

Not a guarantee of success.

But a guarantee that effort mattered.

A guarantee that responsibility would be rewarded.

Today, more and more Australians feel that promise slipping away.

They are not asking for guarantees.

They are asking for a fair chance.

Australians are doing their part.

Working hard.

Taking responsibility.

And wondering whether government is doing its part too.

As Shadow Minister for Small Business, I spend a great deal of time listening to business owners.

The people who open the doors before sunrise.

The people who invest their savings and their future into building something.

The people who employ Australians and keep local communities alive.

And what I hear repeatedly is the same concern.

For small businesses already facing rising costs, higher energy prices and workforce shortages, Labor’s approach creates one more obstacle.

It makes business owners think twice.

Twice before investing.

Twice before expanding.

Twice before taking on an apprentice.

Twice before creating opportunity.

Because small businesses create opportunity with every dollar they invest.

Every apprentice starts with a business owner willing to take a chance on somebody’s future.

Sadly, many businesses tell me they are simply keeping their head above water.

And the consequences are already visible.

More than 45,000 businesses have entered insolvency since Labor came to office.

Construction businesses continue to record the highest number of failures.

These are the very businesses Australia needs to build more homes.

At a time when Australians are struggling through a housing crisis of Labor’s doing, the businesses we need most are under the greatest pressure.

And the pressure does not stop there.

Next month, Australians will pay another 32 cents a litre at the fuel bowser under the Albanese Government.

And fuel is not just another cost.

Fuel moves our freight.

Fuel grows our crops.

Fuel powers our machinery.

Fuel gets Australians to work.

Fuel keeps businesses operating and goods moving across this country.

When fuel costs rise, everything costs more.

You cannot build a stronger economy by making everything that powers it more expensive.

Small businesses feel it.

Farmers feel it.

Families feel it.

And Australians will pay more as a result.

Now Australians are being asked to trust Labor again when it says these tax changes will somehow improve the economy.

But economic success is measured by whether Australians can get ahead.

Whether they can build a business.

Whether they can own a home.

Whether they can build a future for their family.

And uncertainty does not only affect investment.

It affects training.

Governments talk about skills, housing and productivity.

But none of those things appear by magic.

Somebody has to train the next generation.

Somebody has to teach young Australians skills they will carry for life.

Builders, mechanics, manufacturers and contractors do that every day.

Every apprenticeship begins with an employer willing to invest in somebody else’s future.

Yet at the very moment Australia needs more skilled workers, Labor has cut $266 million from apprenticeship incentives.

At the same time, it found another $35 million for skills advice and bureaucracy.

Australians are entitled to ask a simple question:

Does this Government value apprentices or bureaucracy more?

You cannot build homes, strengthen industry or improve productivity without skilled workers.

And you cannot create skilled workers without employers willing to train them.

Every apprenticeship represents independence.

A career.

A future.

When governments make it harder for businesses to train apprentices, they are not simply reducing workforce numbers.

They are reducing opportunity.

That contradiction sits at the heart of this legislation.

Because at its core, this debate is not really about tax.

It is about whether Australia rewards responsibility or punishes it.

Whether we encourage aspiration or make it harder.

Whether we create opportunity or put it further out of reach.

And I acknowledge my own Northern Territory in this debate.

Because in the Territory, investment is not an abstract concept.

It is how businesses start.

It is how communities grow.

It is how jobs are created.

It is how families build their future.

And in the Northern Territory, those investors are not faceless corporations.

They are almost always your mums and dads.

They are police officers.

Firefighters.

Nurses.

Teachers.

Public servants.

Tradespeople.

Small business owners.

The people who coach the local footy team.

Volunteer in their communities.

And back the place they call home.

They are not asking for special treatment.

They are asking not to be punished for doing the right thing.

In Australia, we should reward aspiration, not penalise it.

They are Australians who have worked hard, saved hard and invested so they can look after themselves in retirement and help the next generation get ahead.

In a Territory where 99 per cent of businesses are small businesses, when small business succeeds, our communities benefit.

When small businesses thrive, communities thrive.

When small businesses take on apprentices, opportunity is created.

That should be encouraged, not discouraged.

People willing to work hard.

Take risks.

Build things.

Fix things.

Make things.

And take responsibility.

The small business owner.

The apprentice.

The parent saving for their children’s future.

The Territorian backing their community.

These are the people who create opportunity.

And that is the standard this legislation should be judged against.

Because every new business creates opportunity.

Every apprentice creates opportunity.

Every home built creates opportunity.

Every investment in a local community creates opportunity.

Australia does not need more barriers to those opportunities.

It needs more Australians willing to invest, hire, train and take risks.

Prosperity is not created by government.

It is created by Australians who build, hire, invest and take responsibility.

This legislation will be remembered for what it failed to do.

It failed to create more opportunity for Australians willing to do exactly that.

And that is why it should be opposed.

[Ends]