Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg has challenged his struggling party to capture voters’ attention by slashing taxes, overhauling the GST, and taking on the Trump administration by forcing tech giants to pay local taxes, criticising his own party for contributing to Australia’s economic malaise.

A day after John Howard called for bold policies to counter One Nation, the leading moderate ruffled feathers in the opposition’s top brass by freelancing on economic policy and announcing a new migration target that Taylor did not repeat in a radio interview.

Bragg tacitly acknowledged he was not following party processes but argued it was important to put out ideas and forecasts to “move the debate on” and generate a hopeful political message as Taylor searches for relevance and desperately seeks to shift the spotlight off One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.

At a time when Bragg said voters were increasingly despondent with the status quo, the opposition housing spokesman tore strips off the establishment, declaring that “vested interests rule the roost” and described former prime minister Scott Morrison’s COVID lockdowns as “illiberal madness”.

Bragg admitted the nation’s leadership during the Rudd-Gillard and nine years of Coalition years had “too often been indolent”.

“I get that people are over the two-party system, and it is a tough ask to say to Australians, we buggered it up, but please vote for us again,” he said in a National Press Club speech calling for an “economic revolution” and a restoration of free-market, liberal ideals.

“Consequently, Australian politics is now more fragmented. As someone who was a backbencher in the Morrison government, I am sorry I didn’t do more to stop the madness.”

His frank comments demonstrate Coalition MPs’ frustration over their policy agenda and a sense of desperation about the economy after Labor raised taxes in its budget at a time when private sector leaders were pleading for productivity-enhancing measures and tax relief. Even after Taylor revealed an ambitious policy on indexing tax brackets in his budget reply speech in May, MPs are worried their agenda is not cutting through.

Bragg’s freelancing also displays Taylor’s challenge to maintain control of his party room. Bragg’s speech frustrated some MPs close to Taylor but was welcomed by others who appreciate his zeal. Policy splits have also emerged this week on gambling advertising and foreign-owned lotteries.

The NSW senator said that the top marginal rate of income tax should be reduced from 47 per cent to somewhere in the 30s. Australia relies heavily on income taxes and the top rate kicks it at a comparatively low rate.

To fund the massive reduction in income taxes, which would hit the budget bottom line, Bragg said that over the medium term the GST could be broadened or increased. He also floated reversing Howard-era laws handing states all GST revenue; some critics say this creates a disincentive for states to become more efficient because underperforming states receive more money.

“I wouldn’t take anything off the table… It’s not necessarily the case that all the consumption tax will flow back to the states either,” he said.

“We need to get to a much flatter income tax system for people and all businesses. Otherwise

we can forget about generating the next Afterpay or Canva.”

In question time, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Bragg was effectively calling for hundreds of billions in cuts by citing the Hawke-Keating government’s spending reduction as the gold standard.

“This is another reason why the divisive and dangerous anti-worker agenda shared by the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation would make cost-of-living pressures worse, not better,” he said.

He called for building regulations to be stripped back so that more cheap houses could be built, arguing not all houses needed to have stringent energy efficiency standards.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said the speech was a “crazed, almost manic, ideological fever dream”, criticising Bragg’s repeated use of the term communist to describe Labor.

“It was genuinely unhinged,” she said on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

Bragg also said Australia should raise billions from Netflix, Meta and others by forcing them to pay tax in Australia. He acknowledged this may amount to a form of “digital services tax”, which is fiercely resisted by the Trump administration.

“Australia must be prepared to fight this – not immobilised by fear of President Trump,” he said.

“At times the political class looked like managerial globalists who did not care about Australia.”

Bragg said that under the Coalition’s policy tying migration to home building, the opposition would cut net overseas migration from 300,000 to about 180,000. Labor is preparing policies to bring the rate down to 225,000.

Taylor did not cite the 180,000 figure on Wednesday when talking at length about migration. Instead, he nominated a figure of around 200,000.

Bragg’s number was not agreed by shadow cabinet; instead, it represented Bragg’s calculation of the migration rate that would exist if the Coalition’s housing policies were put in place. Nationals leader Matt Canavan also said the Coalition would not cut working holiday visas, even though Bragg nominated cuts in this area.