MEDIA STATEMENT
9 October 2026
The Albanese Labor Government has been forced into two embarrassing backflips in a single day, following mounting pressure from the Coalition, small businesses, the Queensland LNP Government, local councils and the Australian public.
First, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been forced to intervene and delay the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) controversial ban on credit card payments. Now, the Albanese Government has also abandoned its proposed cuts to disaster recovery funding.
Two backflips. One day. A Government completely out of touch with the Australians it is supposed to represent.
I welcome both developments, but let’s be clear. Neither would have happened without sustained pressure from the Coalition and Australians who refused to accept these decisions.
For days, Labor ministers have been pointing fingers, ducking responsibility and blaming the independent ATO while small businesses were left wondering how they would manage their cash flow.
Now, after the Coalition and business groups dragged this Government kicking and screaming to the table, Jim Chalmers has suddenly found a way to intervene.
For many small and family businesses, credit cards are not a luxury. They are an important cash-flow management tool, allowing operators to meet their BAS, PAYG and other tax obligations while waiting for customers to pay their invoices.
With electricity, insurance, interest rates and operating costs already through the roof, the last thing businesses across the Sunshine Coast need is another obstacle to staying afloat.
But a delay of up to 12 months is not a permanent solution. The Treasurer has bought himself time, not fixed the problem.
If Jim Chalmers can find the money and the authority to intervene today, why did Labor spend days pretending its hands were tied?
Small businesses deserve certainty, not another deadline hanging over their heads.
And if one backflip wasn’t enough, the Government has now abandoned its disastrous proposal to slash the Commonwealth’s contribution to disaster recovery funding from up to 75 per cent to just 50 per cent.
This would have shifted an enormous financial burden onto Queensland, local councils and ultimately ratepayers, at a time when communities are already confronting increasingly costly natural disasters.
As the Federal Member for Fisher, I have raised these concerns in Parliament and fought against these proposed cuts through local meetings and engagements, including discussions with Sunshine Coast Mayor Rosanna Natoli, back in June
I particularly acknowledge Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, Disaster Recovery Minister Ann Leahy, the Local Government Association of Queensland and all 77 Queensland mayors who stood united against this proposal.
Their efforts have helped force Canberra to reconsider.
On the Sunshine Coast, we know natural disasters are not a matter of if, but when. Communities need certainty that when disaster strikes, governments will be there to help them rebuild.
Queenslanders should never have to fight their own Federal Government for the funding they need to recover from floods, fires and cyclones.
What makes today’s extraordinary double backflip so revealing is that these were entirely avoidable fights.
Small businesses warned Labor about the credit card ban. Queensland councils, the State Government and the Coalition warned Labor about disaster recovery funding.
But rather than listen, this Government dug in its heels until the public backlash became impossible to ignore.
Remember what Anthony Albanese promised Australians before the 2022 election?
“If I’m Prime Minister, I’ll show up, I’ll step up, and I’ll work every day to bring our country together.”
He also told Australians:
“I think that Australians want a government that does its job, that doesn’t always blame someone else, that accepts responsibility.”
Well, Prime Minister, what happened to those promises?
Because four years later, Australians are seeing the exact opposite.
Labor has become a government that doesn’t listen until it is forced to, doesn’t act until it is embarrassed, and doesn’t take responsibility until it runs out of excuses.
These decisions should never have reached this point.
I welcome the reprieve for small businesses and the reversal on disaster funding, but Australians deserve more than a government that stumbles from one policy disaster to the next.
They deserve a government that listens, takes responsibility and gets the decisions right in the first place.
[ENDS]
Media Contact: Brendan West – 0402 556 646 – Brendan.west@aph.gov.au
