Pauline Hanson has unloaded on Labor’s “horrible budget” in an extraordinary spray that drew parallels between the government’s controversial tax changes and the ideas of Karl Marx.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have both come under fire for breaking a major election commitment, after announcing the government’s negative gearing and capital gains tax concession would be radically pared back.
Speaking to Sky News Australia on Wednesday, Senator Hanson said the government’s changes deprived future generations of opportunities to get ahead.
“What they’ve done is strip this away from the future generations,” Ms Hanson said.
“This is a Marxist, socialist, communist budget.
“A budget basically that says… we’re going to strip wealth, we want to disperse wealth right across (society).”
The One Nation leader said that as a baby boomer, she had grown up often going without.
“We didn’t have everything. I had second-hand furniture, second-hand clothes. We never went to restaurants. We always cooked in the house to save money,” she said.
“And then when we have that few extra dollars, we bought investment properties – I own some investment properties, and I rented them out to try and get ahead in life.
“That’s the way I was brought up watching my parents, and that was the aspiration.
“(Labor) are not going to inspire the younger generation to go in there.”
The Queensland Senator added that the people buying investment properties were not the ultra-rich; they were regular people just trying to get ahead.
“Most of this housing that’s bought up is bought up by those paramedics, nurses, police – the people that actually invest because we want to be able to provide for ourselves and our future,” she said.
“Because you don’t know what life’s going to bring you.
“Can you depend on the government to give you an age pension? Can you depend on the government to give you a decent aged care facility to live in? No.
“I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them, because we’ve got nothing left in the kitty anymore.”
The One Nation leader said it wasn’t negative gearing but mass migration that was causing the housing crisis, which the government’s changes would do nothing to address.
“Mass migration. It’s what’s driving up housing prices (and) needs to be addressed,” she said.
Senator Hanson then added that far from solving intergenerational inequality, Labor’s budget was taxing future generations to fund their spending.
“They’re robbing the people now to pay for the next budget… to give all the handouts,” she said.
“People, wake up, you’re paying for it. Our future generations are going to be paying for this in the future.
“It is a horrible budget.”