In a high-stakes address to Australia’s House of Representatives delivered shortly after 7:30 pm Thursday, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor laid out the Coalition’s far-reaching policy blueprint for tackling the country’s soaring cost of living, locking in a series of contentious pledges that have already divided political circles across the nation.
Against a backdrop of a federal budget shaped by global volatility stemming from the Middle East conflict – one where the ruling Labor government has pushed forward sweeping reforms to housing investor tax breaks including changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing, policies the Coalition has already promised to reverse if elected – Taylor’s reply positioned the opposition as a sharp alternative to Labor’s agenda. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has framed Labor’s tax changes as a critical step to rebalance Australia’s increasingly unaffordable housing market and improve equity for first-time buyers, but Taylor rejected that framing outright, labeling the new levies on housing and small business a “stealth raid” on hardworking Australians striving to improve their financial standing, an unfair assault on personal aspiration.
The most eye-catching proposal in the Coalition’s plan is a hard cap on net overseas migration, tied directly to the annual number of new housing completions across the country. Taylor stressed that under a future Coalition government, “Never again will a government be able to bring in more people than our housing can support. That’s our commitment.” To address the current national housing shortfall, Taylor confirmed migration levels would be held “significantly below” the cap for the first several years of a Coalition term, delivering what he called “one of the biggest cuts to immigration in Australian history.” He declined to release a precise numerical target ahead of the next election, arguing that setting a fixed figure now would be reckless, and hit out at Labor for consistently overshooting its own migration targets, drawing jeers from government benches in response.
Beyond the migration cap, the Coalition laid out a suite of further border and visa policy changes: the existing Australian Values Statement will become an enforceable condition for visa approval, permanent visa holders will be legally required to learn English, enhanced border screening will be implemented to block radical extremists, Temporary Protection Visas will be reinstated to crack down on what Taylor called “frivolous protection claims” via a formal list of safe countries deemed free of persecution, and the government will move to process and deport 70,000 visa overstayers who have no legal right to remain in the country. “Those who criticise the law being enforced must explain why their sympathies lie with illegal overstayers instead of with migrants and Australians who abide by the law,” Taylor said.
On housing, the Coalition plans to unblock stalled residential construction projects and inject $5 billion into supporting core infrastructure including new roads, water networks and sewage systems. Taylor said these investments, paired with deep cuts to burdensome regulatory red tape, will unlock 400,000 new homes and reduce the cost of a newly built home by as much as $70,000. Taylor also targeted the 2,000-page National Construction Code introduced under Labor, arguing its thousands of overlapping rules add tens of thousands of dollars to new build costs, with the Coalition aiming to shrink the code to roughly 200 pages. Additional deregulation is planned for the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act as well.
On tax policy, the Coalition introduced its Tax Back Guarantee, which will index the two lowest income tax thresholds to inflation starting in the 2028-29 financial year. Taylor explained this reform will fully protect 85% of Australian income earners, delivering an estimated $250 in relief in the first year of the policy, growing to more than $1,000 annually by the fourth year. Starting in 2031-32, the two highest tax thresholds will also be indexed to inflation, extending full protection from bracket creep to all Australian taxpayers, a change Taylor described as once-in-a-generation tax reform. For small businesses with annual turnover under $10 million, the policy makes the immediate asset deduction of up to $50,000 a permanent measure, to encourage ongoing business investment.
In a further contentious shift, Taylor confirmed the Coalition will restrict access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and 17 other welfare programs exclusively to Australian citizens, excluding permanent residents from accessing these benefits. “My message is this: If you commit to Australia, then Australia will commit to you,” Taylor said. “After all, the taxes paid by hard working Australians should support Australians.” The policy drew immediate mixed reactions even across the political sphere: One Nation leader Pauline Hanson quickly claimed the entire budget reply was “replete with One Nation policies,” arguing the Coalition had stolen longstanding One Nation proposals after previously dismissing the minor party as having no workable ideas. But senior Coalition figures defended the plan, with Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson telling the ABC the policy aligns with a growing global shift among European nations, arguing “it has to be on the basis of they come, commit and contribute” to access public benefits. Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson told Sky News the policy of restricting welfare to citizens is “right and proper,” though she declined to specify how much taxpayer money the change would save.
On economic and fiscal policy, Taylor announced that a future Coalition government would deposit 80 cents of every dollar in resource revenue that exceeds forecast projections into a new Future Generations Fund. The fund will be used to pay down Labor’s projected $1 trillion in national debt and fund new nation-building infrastructure projects, with 25% of fund allocations directed to regional communities that Taylor said have been neglected by the current Labor government. Taylor also rejected Labor’s tax breaks for electric vehicles, noting the majority of benefits flow disproportionately to high-income households, and confirmed the Coalition would collaborate with the Albanese government on NDIS reform, an unusual point of bipartisan agreement in an otherwise combative address.
On national security, Taylor argued that in an era of global “coercion, crisis, and conflict,” Australia must prioritize greater self-reliance. A Coalition government will develop a formal National Security Strategy and appoint a dedicated National Security Adviser, with defense as the central pillar of the strategy. Unlike Labor, which projects to hit the 3% of GDP defense spending target by 2033 via a planned $53 billion spending increase over 10 years, Taylor committed the Coalition would meet the 3% of GDP target immediately, accusing Labor of accounting trickery to delay the investment.
Overall, Taylor’s address stayed largely aligned with the Coalition’s longstanding policy priorities: pushing back against high mass migration levels, criticizing big government overspending, and highlighting the growing cost of living crisis that has made the traditional Australian dream of a single-income earner saving for a home deposit increasingly out of reach for many. Taylor closed by outlining his core vision for the country: “to revive the freedom that Australians have lost under Labor. Not a government-directed economy – a free-enterprise economy. Not bigger government – better government.”