Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The 32½ per cent rate which applies to nonresidents, as a result of case law applies to backpackers—that is what the tax office has said very clearly in their own statements. And the non-resident tax rate which now applies was set by the member for Lilley, and he claimed more than $80 billion in revenue in that budget. Now when it became clear that this is what had transpired, the government sought to give certainty to these arrangements, and we still seek to give certainty to these arrangements, and those opposite continue to frustrate by coming up with any rate of tax that they can pull out of a lucky-dip bag with other senators on the crossbench. That is not the way to run a tax policy. We heard earlier that the shadow Treasurer just makes up policy as he goes along and then he says, 'Well, we try and make sure that it costs less than what the government does,' and we know that his plan for Australia is a budget deficit which is $16.8 billion higher, and that is after he has stripped away the company tax cuts to small and medium-sized businesses—that is after he has put more taxes on hardworking Australians who want to go and save for their future and invest for their children.

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