Treasurer Jim Chalmers has ripped into Pauline Hanson\u2019s One Nation and the Liberal Party, suggesting that billionaire Gina Rinehart is calling the shots.<\/p>\n
Accusing critics of the budget changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing of being all about protecting their privilege, the Treasurer revved up ALP delegates on Thursday, urging them to keep the faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur tax reforms begin with the simple truth that there\u2019s a generational crisis in housing,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can choose to ignore it or choose to address it. Ignoring it would be easier politically, much easier, but the wrong choice. It would consign future generations to a broken status quo and leave this for some other government to fix.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo many young Australians are already locked out of housing, and we decided not to let that endure. We decided not just to acknowledge that truth but to actually do something about it, even if it meant the predictable daily barrage of scare campaigns<\/p>\n
full of lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the attack got personal when the Treasurer accused his opponents of trying to stop the path of progress for first-home buyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur opponents who say we\u2019re pulling up the ladder don\u2019t understand there\u2019s not much point in a ladder with the first few rungs missing,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everybody is born already at the top of the ladder like Angus Taylor was; not everybody fails upwards like he has.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd unlike One Nation, we vote the way workers need us to, not the way Gina Rinehart tells us to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe irony of their position is they want to change the government in order to leave everything as it is \u2013 a truly absurd proposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo often the story of this Budget is told by the biggest beneficiaries of these current arrangements, not the biggest victims of the broken status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liberal leader Angus Taylor, a lawyer who was a Rhodes scholar who attended Oxford University, has a personal wealth is estimated to be between $10 million and $20 million. <\/p>\n
Mr Chalmers said there would \u201calways those who want everything to stay exactly the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not among them,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019re reforming a broken status quo and they are clinging to it, none of it comes easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of it is hard, all of it contentious and contested, but all of it is worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we have a big chance to do things differently and better here in Australia, and we intend to make the most of that opportunity and make our own way in an uncertain world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pauline\u2019s plane freebie under fire<\/p>\n
Speaking in Sydney, the Prime Minister also honed in on Pauline Hanson\u2019s links to billionaire Gina Rinehart, who recently donated access to a $2 million private aircraft to One Nation.<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese was asked about her \u2018Fire the Liar\u2019 campaign, which has now raised over $1.5 million through crowd-funding in the last 24 hours<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is someone who got a plane worth more than that given to her by Australia\u2019s richest person,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that pales into insignificance compared with the size of a single donation that was given.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Albanese then questioned whether the donations were \u201creal\u201d a claim One Nation has brushed off, insisting the donations are genuine.<\/p>\n \u201cDid she, did she though? What evidence is there?\u2019 Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an example of slogans being put forward, not substance.\u201d<\/p>\n