Topics: Newspoll, Labor’s taxes, Giggle v Tickle
Kieran Gilbert: Shadow Communications Minister, Sarah Henderson, she joins us live. The Coalition primary vote though, hasn’t seen a commensurate increase either off the back of Angus Taylor’s budget reply. Is that a concern to you?
Senator Henderson: Well Kieran, good afternoon. What we’ve seen today from millions of Australians is this is a shocker of a Budget. It’s gone down very badly and it particularly punishes young Australians. The broken promise on the capital gains tax and negative gearing is appalling. It shows this Prime Minister is a fraud and a liar and cannot be trusted. And going to your question, yes, I know our primary vote is down. Of course, the only poll that matters is the one on election day but we recognise, Kieran, we’ve got a lot of hard work to do. But what Angus Taylor announced last Thursday night is a very strong plan to end the bracket creep tax rort, to manage mass migration, to put in place a really solid housing plan – to unlock up to 400,000 homes with an infrastructure fund and also to cut red tape to cut the cost of new builds. So it’s a very strong plan. But most importantly, Kieran, we have announced that we will end Labor’s toxic taxes on housing, on small business, on investment, and on those death taxes. So this is a shocker of a Budget. We know we’ve got to go out and fight very hard, but we will fight like hell because this is a country worth fighting for.
Kieran Gilbert: Is it overcooking it to say the death taxes, given the current situation, has been grandfathered in those discretionary trusts? And the Prime Minister argued earlier, Senator, that if you can still have that same set-up in a tax situation, if people simply move from discretionary to fixed trusts?
Senator Henderson: No because there is a specific prohibition on testamentary trusts in that they will now be subject to this tax. Previously, they weren’t and that is an absolute death tax on those who want to provide for their children and their grandchildren in a whole lot of different ways. So, this is an absolute shocker. And for the Prime Minister to try and wiggle out of this when this was hidden in the Budget papers is appalling. This is a terrible betrayal of Australians and this has nothing to do with fixing intergenerational inequality. This is all about slamming young Australians who want to invest for their future, who want to have the same opportunities that older Australians have to negatively gear property and the like. So it really is a shocker and we’re seeing that in the polls today.
Kieran Gilbert: On another matter, the Opposition leader has vowed to amend the Sex Discrimination Act to include the biological definition of biological sex. This is off the back of the Giggle v Tickle case. Can you explain to our viewers exactly what the Coalition seeks to achieve on that?
Senator Henderson: Well we want to ensure that women and girls-only spaces are properly protected and what this decision has handed down, the Full Federal Court decision, means that women and girls’ spaces are no longer protected. That’s really shocking, frankly. Sall Grover has been fighting this in the courts for some four years. She is a real champion of women’s rights. This is not removing transgender protections in the Sex Discrimination Act but this is saying that biological sex matters, that women’s safety and dignity and privacy matters. And that when sex is relevant in the Sex Discrimination Act, biological sex matters, and we are determined to protect that. But where is the Prime Minister? Why have the rights of women and girls been subverted under the Sex Discrimination Act? And we have seen not a word from this Prime Minister other than some pathetic comments by the Attorney-General.
Kieran Gilbert: Will you seek to legislate next week
Senator Henderson: We are working at the moment on a private bill to come into the parliament. There’s quite a lot of action happening behind the scenes. We would like to see the law changed immediately. This government must step up. This is a terrible decision, not just for women and girls, because there are certain circumstances where the rights of men and boys to their own spaces have to be protected as well. So we’re concerned about privacy, dignity, safety, and of course the right of women and girls to compete in women’s-only sport. It is quite shocking that we see no action from the Albanese government on what is a really fundamental issue to all Australians.
Kieran Gilbert: Sarah Henderson, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it. We’ll talk to you soon.