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

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan) Bill 2016 amendments. We oppose this motion. The Treasurer has had a great revelation in the last few days. He has had an epiphany and he has revealed something to the Australian people. 'Budgets,' he has told us, 'are about choices.' I am not sure what he thought they were about before the last few days. They are about choices, and this government makes the wrong choices every single time. This week we have seen those choices laid bare, and we will see more tonight.

The government had part of their one-point plan for jobs and growth pass through the Senate. It is part of their one-point plan. It is now a fraction of a one-point plan that they have passed through the Senate. Out of their one-point plan, they got some of it through. This one-point plan is going to generate an economy one per cent bigger in 20 years time. What they did get through will cost over the next decade $24 billion. This week we heard the minister boasting that they have cost the budget $24 billion as they cut $22 billion out of Australia's schools. Those are the wrong priorities. They are the wrong choices for Australia's future that this government is imposing and will impose tonight. By the end of the decade, their corporate tax cut in the total package they are committed to, and have told us they will introduce any time now for the rest of the $50 billion, will cost the budget—wait for it—$14 billion a year. That is what they are boasting about. They say difficult decisions are necessary and they say tough choices are necessary. At the same time, they say they can afford to give this money away but they have to take $22 billion away from schools.

The same government this week told the Australian people that their housing affordability plan involves university graduates paying back their debt earlier, at $42,000 a year. Now, $42,000 a year is not a high salary, but this Prime Minister thinks that that is when you can start to afford to pay back your HELP debt. This is about wrong priorities. The government are increasing student fees by eight per cent, making graduates pay earlier, ripping money away from schools and sending the Catholic education system into meltdown due to their lack of consultation and their lack of policy nous at the same time as they are boasting about their priorities.

This is an important day in this parliament. I tell you what, Mr Speaker, 1 July will be an important day for Australia because that is when the choices made by this government will be made clear. Let's call it 'Choice Day' because this government's choices—the decisions this Prime Minister, this Treasurer and the entire government have made over recent weeks and months—will be made clear. On 1 July high income earners will get a tax cut as the deficit levy comes off. On 1 July Australia's workers who commit no crime other than working on a Sunday will take a pay cut due to choices by this government. On 1 July some businesses will receive a tax cut as well due to choices by this government.

Yes, budgets are about choices. Budgets are about priorities. Budgets are about values. The choice is clear in the contest of ideas between the two sides of this parliament. We will wage that battle in this room, in the other place and in the community. That is a battle we relish because we welcome this fight over choices and because we are proud of the ones we have made. We are proud of the choices we have made, as difficult as some of them have been, because we have put Australians first when it comes to homeownership. We have said we will reform negative gearing and capital gains tax. It is good for the budget, good for financial stability and good for homeownership. This government says it will do none of the above. This is a government whose one-point plan is now a fraction of a one-point plan, and they boast about it at the same time as making the wrong choices for Australia.

The Australian people have a very clear choice that will be laid out tonight as this government's priorities are there again to see. You can have a choice between a corporate tax cut or better funding for schools, but you cannot have both. You can have a choice of a government which believes the answer to low wages growth and record high profits is a corporate tax cut and a cut to penalty rates. If they think the answer to the challenge in Australia of low wages growth is to cut wages further, that says it all. If they actually think, when they sit down and look at the priorities and the values for the future, that they can justify a corporate tax cut when they lecture us about tightening our belts, when they lecture Australia's families and workers about the need for tough choices and when they boast about this resolution they are bringing into the House today, it says it all. It says it all about a Prime Minister on borrowed time—a Prime Minister who is clinging onto his job, so desperate for one Newspoll that is positive— (Time expired)

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