TO no-one’s surprise, the Opposition slammed Tuesday’s Federal Budget, with even Victorian Coalition MPs joining in to throw rocks.

Even before Opposition leader, Peter Dutton’s reply speech, Wannon MP, Dan Tehan said the Budget was “a typical big-spending, big-taxing Labor Budget” and claimed “a typical Australian family with kids will be around $25,000 worse off”.

“After less than a year of Labor in office, government spending will increase by $185 billion,” he said.

“Labor cannot spend its way out of its cost-of-living crisis.”

“Before the election, the Prime Minister promised to lower the cost of living, he promised ‘cheaper electricity’ and he promised ‘cheaper mortgages.’ This Budget confirms these are broken promises.

“Your electricity bills continue to rise. Despite the Prime Minister promising Australians that he would reduce your power bill by $275, even after Labor’s energy relief plan, your electricity bill will still go up by almost $500.

“Despite recalling Parliament last December to legislate “emergency relief,” this relief will not flow until July at the earliest – seven months after it was promised – is only temporary, and only flows to some Australians.”

Mr Tehan also said the pressures migration brings were issues the Budget did not address.

“There is no plan to address the unprecedented increase in net overseas migration that will see, under Labor, 1.5 million new migrants coming to Australia over five years,” he said.

“At the same time, this Budget cuts infrastructure spending, and fails to address congestion, the housing and rental crisis, and the liveability and amenity of our towns and suburbs.

“Before the election, the Prime Minister promised that no one would be left behind, yet this Budget leaves the majority of Australians behind.

“For every dollar of new taxes it has imposed in this Budget, the government has decided to spend two. In this Budget, it is spending twice as fast as it is taxing Australians.

“The Coalition wants Australians to do well, but at the moment we are being held back by a government with no economic plan for the future.”

The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, singled out increased costs of groceries with the new food tax and said the new tax on farmers to pay for the biosecurity risk of international importers was senseless and would just be passed onto consumers.

“It is unfathomable the Labor Government would ask farmers to pay for the biosecurity costs of importers from other countries,” Mr Littleproud said.

“The Coalition proposed a cost recovery model that importers would pay commensurate to the risk provided, rather than farmers, and the model was ready for implementation before the end of last year.”

He also pointed out the Budget included increasing the road user charge on truckies by six per cent, compounding each year, which will inevitably also add to grocery bills for families.

Mr Littleproud was very critical of the abandonment of water security projects worth $872.5 million, including the Dungowan Dam and Emu Swamp Dam, plus delayed funding for the Wyangala Dam Wall raising and Hughenden Irrigation Scheme.

He also claimed, “Labor has put a razor gang to the $120 billion infrastructure pipeline, putting all regional programs in doubt”.

“Not only is the Albanese Government making us pay for their spending, they are also taking away our future by ripping away the tools we need to produce more and get it on your table cheaper,” Mr Littleproud said.

Mr Littleproud also said pushing back regional grant programs under $1 million would mean smaller projects would be ineligible and said the funding for training rural GPs through its Single Employer Model trials was inadequate.

Joining the chorus of dissent were State Coalition MPs who pointed to a $810 million cut to health funding for Victoria over the coming financial year with palliative care funding across aged care facilities reduced - the only state in which this has occurred. 

This prompted shadow health minister, Georgie Crozier, to express reservations about the upcoming State Budget on May 23.

“It is clear not even his Federal colleagues will bail out Daniel Andrews’ Budget mess, and diverting funding from Victoria’s public hospitals will make the situation even worse,” Ms Crozier said.

Victorian shadow treasurer, Brad Rowswell, said the Federal Budget had left the state “short-changed and fallen short of genuine support for hard-working families and businesses”.

 “At a time when Victorians are in desperate need of cost-of-living relief, they are instead facing a horror State Budget of higher taxes, service cuts and further delays to critical community infrastructure projects,” he said.

Giving his Budget reply speech to parliament in Canberra on Thursday night, Mr Dutton took the government to task.

“On Tuesday night, the Treasurer spoke for 30 minutes about our country’s future,” he said.

“Australians listened intently in the hope that the promised cost-of-living relief would be delivered. It wasn’t, and millions of Australians have every right to be disappointed with this government.

Mr Dutton then said “sometimes, the most important thing about a Budget speech is not what the Treasurer says, it’s what he doesn’t say and tries to keep hidden in the Budget papers”.

He then listed five items he said weren’t mentioned.

“10 million Australians who earn under $126,000 will face a tax hike,” Mr Dutton said.

“The government is spending an additional $185 billion, yet middle-income Australians won’t receive one cent … amidst a housing and rental crisis, our migration numbers will increase massively by 1.5 million people over just five years … power bills are still going up by more than $500 (and) finally, as a result of the government’s policies, inflation will only stay higher for longer, continuing to grind down real incomes of households.”

Mr Dutton also cited his own poverty-influenced childhood where both his parents “worked incredibly hard” and discussions were had where “literally every dollar mattered”.

“Today, millions of Australians are having similar conversations in their homes and businesses,” he said.

“The only money the government earns is from taxes paid by you, and that money needs to be spent wisely.

“There’s more spending than the government earns, and that’s exactly what always gets Labor Governments into trouble. We don’t need 10,000 more public servants in Canberra on top of the already 181,000 public servants.”

Mr Dutton said Labor had broken its promise that power bills would be around $1200 next year, with the projection they would be “in excess of $2000 per annum”.

“Australians deserve a much more honest, more sensible, and frankly, less emotional discussion on energy,” he said.

“Energy is crucial to our national success and security.

“If companies shut up shop on our shores and go elsewhere because of Labor’s energy crisis, we lose jobs, we lose the economic benefit to our nation, we lose industries. There’s no benefit to the environment because those greater emissions are just emitted in another part of the world. In that scenario, no-one wins.”

He went on to claim that 32 countries used zero-emission nuclear power and said the reluctance to consider the advance of science was odd given “Labor is happy for similar technologies to power our future submarines”.

Mr Dutton finished his speech with a rhetorical flourish.

“I leave this question with the Australian people: are you better off today than you were 12 months ago when Labor was elected?” he asked.

“You deserve a better government - a far better government.”