Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

They are the amendments that we put in the House. I seek leave to table them.

Leave granted.

Those are the amendments that we moved which the coalition voted down—amendments that would have doubled the tax cuts for middle- and low-income earners, amendments that would have increased the threshold for the 30c rate and amendments that would have increased the low-income tax offset from $235 to $680. This is proof that these are Labor propositions put in this House two years ago—and the Treasurer has the hide to come into this House and claim that he authored them. It is fairly typical of this Treasurer. When the Treasurer says, ‘Go to the originators,’ he is backing Labor, because we put down the marker on the low-income tax offset, we put down the marker on the threshold for the 30c rate and we forced this government to deliver a better tax deal to middle- and low-income earners. The Treasurer might not like admitting it, but there it is in black and white on the public record—and now tabled in this House.

Since the 2005 budget, the mining boom has delivered even more revenue than the coalition could have imagined, so further tax measures have been made possible since Labor first moved these amendments. That is entirely appropriate, and Labor supports all of them. That of course has not stopped the Treasurer from running a desperate scare campaign over the last few days claiming all manner of things. As a matter of record, I will again state my response to them all. Apparently the Treasurer has got all worked up over comments I made last week to the National Press Club. He has claimed, for instance, that Labor does not intend to have a tax policy for the election. That is another porky from the Treasurer. He quoted me as saying—

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