Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor Party supports the Tax Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Reduction) Bill 2007 and supports the tax cuts contained in it. This bill provides that the 30 per cent tax threshold will be increased from $25,000 to $30,000 from July 1 this year. The bill also increases the low-income tax offset from $600 to $750 a year and raises the threshold at which the offset starts to phase out from $25,000 to $30,000. The level of income at which the offset ceases will increase from $40,000 to $48,750. From July 1 next year, 2008, the 40c threshold will increase from $75,000 to $80,000, which will deal with bracket creep for those income earners. The 45 per cent threshold will increase from $150,000 to $180,000, which better aligns our top tax bracket with international standards.

Labor support each of these measures, and we do so for several reasons. Firstly because they are good policy, and the Australian people do not expect the opposition to oppose for opposition’s sake but to lend bipartisan support where appropriate. That is what we are doing today. It is because they are good policy that Labor has been calling for tax cuts for years. It is because they are good economic policy and because they are fair. That is why the Labor Party have been calling for these types of tax cuts, and that is why we support them.

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