Liberal leader Angus Taylor was caught on tape at a business breakfast falsely claiming that migrants gain access to the 5 per cent home deposit scheme “the day they arrive in this country.”

The Opposition leader was secretly recorded while attending a business breakfast with Nationals leader Matt Canavan in Queensland on Thursday before the audio was leaked to the Labor Party.

In a recording obtained by news.com.au, Mr Taylor correctly claims that migrants can access the scheme but falsely claims they can do it from the moment they arrive in Australia.

“We need to make sure that citizenship is rewarded, and it should be Australian citizens who get access to programs like the 5 per cent Home Deposit Scheme,’’ Mr Taylor says.

“Labor changed this and said; ‘No, no, that’s available to anyone the day they arrive in the country.’”

In fact, the scheme is not available to migrants the day they arrive in Australia; it is only available to citizens and permanent residents.

It can take three years or longer to be eligible to apply for permanent residency or 5 years if you are an international student. There is not set timeframe.

Non-citizens are permanent residents who are not yet Australian citizens. The scheme is closed to temporary residents.

That means that the vast majority of people that arrive in Australia as temporary residents are not eligible.

Mr Taylor has announced a Coalition government would close the Australian Government 5 per cent Deposit Scheme to “anyone but Australian citizens”.

The scheme allows first home buyers with a minimum 5 per cent deposit to purchase a property, with the federal government acting as a guarantor.

Since its creation, an estimated 50,000 migrants have accessed the scheme to buy their first home, making up 16 per cent of the total guarantees issued.

‘A buffet of BS’

Treasurer Jim Chalmers slammed the claims migrants can use the scheme from the day they arrive as “absolute rubbish” and said it was no wonder someone leaked the tape.

“(Angus Taylor) invited small business people for breakfast then served them up a buffet of BS,’’ the Treasurer told news.com.au.

“Apparently it was a long and boring partisan speech and by the sounds of it he told a new lie every ten minutes or so on average.

“No wonder somebody was pissed off enough to leak us a recording.

“Don’t come to our local community and take local people for mugs.

“This sort of rubbish is exactly why the Liberal Party is dying in his arms.”

Mr Taylor previously stated that he was “appalled” that so many non-citizens accessed the scheme.

“A loan scheme, financed by the Australian taxpayer, should be reserved for Australian citizens,” he said.

Migration claims

In the tape, the Liberal leader also claims that Labor increased migrant levels to half a million migrants in a single year.

“Labor went from around 200,000 when we were in government a year coming into the country to 550,000 in a single year, and no increase in housing supply,’’ he said.

In response, Mr Chalmers said that when Labor came to office, net overseas migration was surging – it had increased by 2100% in just the previous 6 months.

“We’ve got net overseas migration down 45 per cent since its peak,’’ a spokesman said.

“In 2025-26, building approvals reached a five year high at 205,249.

“When we came to office building approvals were going backwards 22.0%, now they’re growing 14.1 per cent.”

Trusts, truth and politics

Mr Taylor also argues in the tape that “family trusts, discretionary trusts, are how almost every small business in this country is set up.”

In response, Mr Chalmers said that of the 2.7 million active small businesses in Australia, less than 15 per cent (about 350,000) operated through a discretionary trust structure.

The Albanese Government maintains that 90 per cent of Australia’s 2.7 million active small businesses will not be affected in any given year by our minimum tax on discretionary trusts.

“Most small business people start with nothing. They start with nothing, and then when they make something, he’s going to be a partner taking almost 50% of their gains,’’ Mr Taylor also claims on the recording.

In response, the Treasurer said that of 2.7 million active small businesses (98 per cent of all active businesses) are eligible for the 50 per cent active asset CGT reduction.

Mr Chalmers said many small businesses are eligible for additional CGT concessions to reduce or eliminate any tax on gains.

The Government will also legislate a 50 per cent concession for innovative small businesses and start-ups.

Housing claims

The Liberal leader also warns on the tape that housing construction is going backwards in Australia.

“A housing bureaucracy that’s not delivering another house. Housing construction’s gone backwards. Gone. It’s going to go,’’ he said.

The government maintains that completions and commencements, which were declining, are growing again.

A spokesman said dwelling completions were falling 6.9%, but are now growing, albeit extremely modestly at 0.8 per cent.

Dwelling commencements were going backwards 28.4% – the largest annual fall in more than 2 decades, now they’re growing again.

Big claim on OECD and living standards

“They have taken this country, and in the course of four years, they’ve succeeded in overseeing the biggest reduction in living standards of any developed country in the world,’’ Mr Taylor told the business breakfast.

In response, the Treasurer said that at the end of last year Australian living standards in the OECD data were growing faster than all the G7 and the OECD average.

Liberals’ message of the day leaked

Meanwhile some Liberals in the Coalition have also taken to leaking their own talking points, with the “messages of the day” tips provided to news.com.au on how to attack the Prime Minister over an MP being charged with assault.

“The Prime Minister cannot hide behind an active police investigation to avoid making a leadership decision. He should immediately stand Luke Gosling aside as Special Envoy,’’ the message states.

However, Liberals claim that’s exactly what Mr Taylor has been doing regarding ICAC, which is probing some of his NSW Liberal factional colleagues.

While Mr Taylor is not accused of wrongdoing, he’s been suggesting he won’t comment on an active investigation.

A Liberal source described the ICAC situation as a ‘s**tshow’.

“Angus is telling us all to say that the Prime Minister can’t hide behind investigations the day immediately after he answered 10 questions on ICAC by hiding behind an investigation,’’ he said.

“What a s**t show – he needs to fix up his office quickly or he may not have a chance to.”