‘We are being punished’: Liberal MP blames Labor-like policies for voter anger

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[00:00:00]I I I'll go domestic here and ask you first of all about this Redbridge poll.

[00:00:04]Thanks for your time >> which has the Liberal Party only winning seven seats and the coalition 12 in total. What did you how much credence do you give this and how worried are you about this?

[00:00:13]>> Well, I think you have to take all these things seriously and I think what it shows is there's a huge amount of grievance in the Australian community and I think we have not done a good job in the last 10 years on economic policy.

[00:00:24]That's my main takeaway that we've had too much similarity with the Labor Party. We should have done more on tax, more on industrial relations, more on super, more on budget stuff. Uh, and we've just been too similar to to Labor over a long period of time. We're being punished.

[00:00:40]>> Are you prepared for the decimation of the Liberal Party?

[00:00:43]>> I think Australians want an economic revolution. I think they're right to want that. And I want the Liberal Party to be leading that.

[00:00:50]>> The government sort of claims they're doing that. What do you make of that?

[00:00:52]But with their high taxes, I mean, they're going to give us the world's highest pay as you go income tax system.

[00:00:57]They're going to give us the world's highest capital gains tax. I mean, all they're doing is introducing new taxes which are going to smash investment and smash jobs.

[00:01:05]>> Do you accept to It's looking increasingly likely to win office. You'd need a coalition with one nation. Now, >> I'm not prepared to concede that right now. I think the message is clear though. People actually do want an economic revolution and they deserve one. I mean, we've got low productivity.

[00:01:21]We've got high interest rates, high inflation, anemic growth. I mean, Australia is going out of business. I think we're in real trouble under this government and we have to accept that part of the blame here belongs with us over a long period of time. I think we've been too much like a uni party with Labor on economic policy and if we don't massively differentiate like we're starting to do on bracket creep, then we're going to be dead.

[00:01:44]>> Would you be prepared to do deals with One Nation to form government, do you think?

[00:01:48]>> I don't think that needs to be conceded.

[00:01:50]I think we should still be shooting for majority government, but we've got to recognize that the business as usual approach is dead. I mean, there are some people in CRA who say, "Oh, it'll just swing back. Everything will be a bit the same." I mean, the whole system is massively fragmented because Australians are very upset. They're very disappointed with us. And they should be because like ultimately the chickens are coming home to roost for the Liberal Party and this is a big opportunity for us to reset. It's not too late.

[00:02:19]What's the Liberal Party done wrong then in the last 10 years?

[00:02:22]>> Well, we've failed on economic policy.

[00:02:23]We've failed to differentiate on things like IR super tax spending. We have embraced >> spent too much then.

[00:02:31]>> Yeah. And and and we haven't had any differentiation really on tax other than on stage three tax cuts. The last time we had a decent tax policy before the bracket creep agenda was stage three >> on IR. Obviously, we had the work choices.

[00:02:46]>> Yeah. debacle, I guess you could call it. I mean, are you looking to go back in that direction?

[00:02:50]>> It's time for some risk to get some advantage for the Australian community.

[00:02:55]I mean, otherwise, we will never actually fix the problems. I mean, >> yeah, but what do you want to do on IR?

[00:03:01]I mean, if you're going to reduce people's salaries and conditions, they're not going to vote.

[00:03:04]>> You got to give more choice. You've got to have more support for small business.

[00:03:08]I mean, what Tim Wilson has started to kick off with the small business agenda is very important because small business is our natural constituency. I think a lot of people who work in small business and don't forget small businesses are just people have been disappointed with our offering as well. We haven't been ambitious enough. We've tried to hug the margins and our policy formulation hasn't been good enough.

[00:03:32]>> Now Tony Abbott is about to become your federal president, the Liberal Party.

[00:03:36]He's not exactly on your factional side of things. How do you see him uh what do you think of him getting that role and how do you see him contributing because it seems like he wants a pretty active role taking on Labor and One Nation.

[00:03:47]Look, I don't think the internals of the Liberal Party's organizational wing are of interest to many people including myself like ultimately the parliamentary team has to do the policy work. There's no substitute for that. That is the real work now that is needed to be done in an urgent fashion. The budget reply is a good start, but we have to do a lot more stuff in this term if we are going to be a majority government again. And to go back to the original question, I mean, we have the capacity, the institutional capacity to do a really significant piece of economic work that I think the Australian people are wanting us to do.

[00:04:24]What do you make of the government argument that since the 1999 capital gains tax discount, house prices have gone up 400%. And wages simply haven't kept up. They're linking the two things.

[00:04:34]>> Well, there's this magical thing called supply and the laws of supply and demand haven't been suspended. And what's happened is these guys have spent $80 billion on housing to build 30,000 fewer houses each and every year since they've won office in 2022. And look, Andrew Charton's a nice guy. He's a smart guy.

[00:04:51]He's been successful. But like sending him out, most people would have no idea who Andrew Chartton is. They'd be like, "Who the hell is this guy and why is he talking about these horrendous tax changes like they are in a terrible mess on this because they put in place the world's highest capital gains?"

[00:05:05]>> Are you bagging the fact that Andrew Charlton came on the show this morning?

[00:05:08]>> I like Andrew Charlton, but I mean, most people would say, "Who the hell is this guy?" I mean, where's the treasurer? Why isn't he defending these toxic changes?

[00:05:14]>> Look, I'd love to interview the treasurer every week, but I did have him on the other week. But >> no, but I'm I'm not making comment about your show, Andrew. making a comment about generally speaking pushing Andrew Charlton out to defend these tax changes. I think it's embarrassing for Charas and Albanese.

[00:05:27]>> Do you are you suggesting that the government is pushing Charlton out because Charas isn't up to the job on the >> He's failed to explain why we have to have the world's highest capital gains tax as well as the world's highest pay as you go system. I mean, people feel smashed. They get no relief from this.

[00:05:44]And younger people in particular now face none of the opportunities or have none of the opportunities the older generations had.

[00:05:51]What should the government do for startups if they're determined to press ahead with this tax, but they want to uh give them some relief? Well, >> they shouldn't proceed with this tax. I mean, small businesses, startups, ETFs, crypto, shares, everything gets hit with this great big tax on everything and they shouldn't be proceeding with it.

[00:06:09]I'm not interested in thinking about carveouts. We don't think that people who have a good idea should be pan should be punished like this.

[00:06:15]>> Should the discount be reduced though?

[00:06:17]>> Well, why? Well, why do you need it there?

[00:06:21]>> I would increase it. I wouldn't reduce it.

[00:06:23]>> You would increase the capital gains tax discount.

[00:06:25]>> I would be looking to cut taxes.

[00:06:27]>> Well, we should be looking to cut taxes.

[00:06:29]There are heaps of ways you could play around with CGT to actually incentivize more investment. I mean, >> but how do you fund income tax cuts?

[00:06:36]>> But you honestly think we need more taxes.

[00:06:39]>> No, I'm just saying you if you want to fund income tax cuts, which most Australians would support, >> how how do you fund that?

[00:06:46]>> Well, you need to cut the hell out of spending. You've got to look at the other side of the budget which is spending. And I think the idea that people are too afraid to say what they would cut is part of the weakness which is in >> Well, here you go. Here's your chance.

[00:06:58]What are you cutting?

[00:06:59]>> Well, obviously we'll get through that, but we have to nominate exactly what it is that we wouldn't go ahead with. Now, Angus, >> hang on. You just said, you know, people are too afraid to say, so why don't you just say what would you like to cut?

[00:07:08]We've talked about a lot of it in the budget reply in terms of the government's boondoggles like the NRF and the housing funds and obviously we'll support the government on the NDIS but there are other things that we should be looking to to reduce or to remove because I just think >> you'll definitely support the government on the NDIS some speculation otherwise in the past >> we definitely should look to do that because it's important that we get this program back into a reasonable state I mean at the end of the day if you look at all this one nation stuff I think one of the problems is that People look at politicians and they think, "Well, they're all just the same. They're all just plastic. They have no real conviction."

[00:07:43]>> They wear the same suits, you know, >> probably. And that's part of the problem.