Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moore for his question. When I had the opportunity to visit Moore not that long ago the member and I had the chance to speak to a number of people in his electorate. One of them was, in fact, a cafe worker at Hillarys Harbour in Moore. Under the coalition, a cafe worker who is earning, say, $45,000 a year will be $440 a year better off as a result of the coalition's tax cuts. That's the difference between the coalition's comprehensive tax plan and the Australian Labor Party, which has a plan to impose an extra $70 billion of personal income taxes on Australians.

The fact is that this is all part of the coalition's ongoing commitment to putting Australia in a more robust position through tax cuts that we're providing so Australians can keep more of the money that they work for, so they can keep more of the pay that they get and so they have more aspiration and incentive to earn even more. It's also about the fact that this week we have been able to boost new export opportunities for Australian business with the launch of yet another trade agreement under this coalition's trade agenda, which is the most ambitious trade agenda that Australia's ever seen.

I think we've got those on the other side a little bit rattled. The criticism about them being a long way away from the former Labor Party probably meant that the Leader of the Opposition had to pull together the brains trust to come up with a new plan to have some kind of throwback to Labor. The Leader of the Opposition would have been there—the shadow Treasurer would have come in his best grey suit and they probably got the member for Rankin to come in; the brains trust who helped deliver the 'four years of surplus'—and he would have said, 'We need to channel old Labor. How do we channel old Labor?' So they came up with a strategy: 'We know what worked for a former Leader of the Opposition. Let's channel a bit of Kim Beazley.' They would have said, 'Let's go back with the tax rollback plan.' That's what we've got from Labor. We've got their big new tax rollback plan, channelling all the best bits of Kim Beazley. They're going to take it to the Australian people. The Australian Labor Party's going to roll back their tax cuts. The Australian Labor Party's going to roll back the strong border protection we've got.

The simple fact is this: this Leader of the Opposition has all the hallmarks of a populist except for popularity. It's only the coalition who are going to be able to ensure that Australians enjoy more tax cuts in the future, that we manage the budget, that we open more export opportunities and, most importantly, that we continue to provide the right business conditions to drive a million new jobs for Australians—the vast bulk of which are full-time jobs—and a more aspirational future.

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