Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese obviously thought he was being funny this week when he compared Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton to Jack Nicholson in The Shining. It was a revealing moment not only because the Prime Minister seemed genuinely amused by the joke but also in showing how dependent Prime Minister Albanese is on his spin doctors. Surely one of his many advisers could have found a more apt allusion. Alas, the joke ended up on the Prime Minister anyway when the member for Wannon, my colleague Mr Dan Tehan, suggested a more fitting and better known Hollywood line. 'You can't handle the truth,' he said. Even members of Anthony Albanese's own government appreciated this until they realised they were laughing at the wrong joke.

It's now been two weeks since the Prime Minister spent close to half a million taxpayer dollars flying Labor colleagues and staff to Canberra to rubberstamp his broken tax promise, an achievement they celebrated later the same day with cocktails and canapes at the Lodge. Unfortunately for Treasurer Jim Chalmers, his celebrations were necessarily brief. That's because, as the more popular of the two of them, he was sent out by the Prime Minister with the task of coaxing the public into accepting this great deception. But the best Jim Chalmers has been able to do is to come up with a substitute for his tax sellout by calling it tax reform. I'd suggest that the Treasurer and Labor try to conjure up something a little bit more convincing because, as Australians have shown repeatedly, they don't like being treated as idiots and don't appreciate being lied to. Australians know lifting two thresholds of a single tax and shifting bracket creep from one family to another family is no more a reform than the Labor Party of Albanese is the Labor of Bob Hawke.

Winston Churchill once said that any politician can rat—as in to break a promise—but it takes a real ability to re-rat. Anthony Albanese's staff are going to have to pull off—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Smith, refer to members by their correct title.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's staff are going to have to pull off one of the greatest re-rats of history to try to convince Australians they can ever be trusted on tax again.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Smith, I think you should withdraw that.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Which part?

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm not repeating it.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm happy to withdraw. True reform is what the coalition had legislated—the plan Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised to uphold on more than 100 occasions. It was to address bracket creep, the great thief in the night, which has never seen the government's receipts soar from tax increases Australians never voted for. Instead, we have what is akin to shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic. Having proven themselves incapable of managing the economy, with 12 interest rate rises, an increase to the public sector wage bill of more than $1 billion, record and unmodelled immigration and the biggest decline in inflation adjusted wages across the OECD, Labor has decided to bypass genuine reform and instead pinned its hopes on a short-term reward. Their target, of course, is Dunkley and saving the Prime Minister.

My advice to Prime Minister Albanese is to remember the promise made by one of his predecessors, Julia Gillard—namely that there would be no carbon tax under a government she led. She broke her word, and the fate of Labor was sealed for years to come. Once respect is lost, it's hard to regain. The same goes for trust. It's a lesson Labor is about to learn. In contrast, the coalition will go to the next election and to the voters of Dunkley advocating for the reforms of stage 3, the reforms that until two weeks ago were also Labor policy. We will roll back bracket creep for everyone because we know people rise through income levels as their careers progress and their expertise grows and because a mature government represents the entire country, not temporary income groups. We will have a lower, simpler and fairer tax system, one that reflects the striving and the aspirational as well as the generous and equitable spirit of this country, Australia.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind honourable senators that legislation committees will meet to consider estimates commencing on Monday 12 February 2024 at 9 am.

Senate adjourned at 17:54