The Coalition will strongly oppose any move by the Albanese Government to increase the size of the Australian Parliament, warning it would come at significant cost to taxpayers at a time Australians are already under severe financial pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Analysis from the Parliamentary Budget Office shows that expanding the Parliament could cost taxpayers more than $620 million, including salaries, staff, travel and office costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leader of the Opposition Angus Taylor said the Government had its priorities completely wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt a time when Australian families are tightening their belts, the last thing they should be asked to fund is more politicians,\u201d Mr Taylor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a Government that cannot manage the economy, cannot control spending, and now wants to make Australians pay for a bigger Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is more spending, more bureaucracy, and more pressure on the budget at exactly the wrong time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will protect Australians\u2019 way of life and restore their standard of living, and that starts with living within our means.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leader of The Nationals Matt Canavan said the proposal showed how out of touch the Government had become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople in regional Australia are doing it tough. They are paying more for fuel, groceries and power,\u201d Senator Canavan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey do not want more politicians in Canberra. They want practical help with the cost of living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow is the time to tighten the belt, not expand the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis Government is focused on itself. The Coalition is focused on Australians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Coalition is calling on the Prime Minister to immediately rule out any expansion of the Parliament and instead focus on Australia’s declining living standards and cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Coalition will strongly oppose any move by the Albanese Government to increase the size of the Australian Parliament, warning it would come at significant cost to taxpayers at a time Australians are already under severe financial pressure. Analysis from the Parliamentary Budget Office shows that expanding the Parliament could cost taxpayers more than $620 … Continue reading “Coalition will oppose expanding the size of Parliament”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38229,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38228\/revisions\/38229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}