Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

We oppose these hastily cobbled together amendments that create some veneer of credibility for the Labor Party after they took to the Australian people $387 billion of higher taxes. They have the gall to come into this place and start talking about pump-priming the economy and providing tax relief for Australians. You can't take this mob seriously. Six weeks ago, they were going to hit retirees, renters, homeowners, family businesses and people with superannuation with higher taxes. Remember that worker up in North Queensland who confronted the then Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, during the election and said, 'What are you doing for us on $200,000+?' The then Leader of the Opposition didn't have the courage to tell him that he was giving him a tax increase if Labor were to get into office.

The member for Rankin talks about aspiration. What Labor was going to do was tax those who aspired to earn more, tax those who wanted to take responsibility for their retirement. Our plan was laid out clearly in the budget, and it has both short-term relief, with up to $1,080 for those earning up to $126,000, and long-term structural reform, where we are going to reduce the rate of tax from 32½c down to 30c in the dollar for those earning between $45,000 and $200,000—one big, flat, simpler tax bracket. That will encourage aspiration.

These amendments from those opposite have been cobbled together at the last minute and are all about giving them a veneer of credibility when they know their credibility has been in tatters since the election. We do know that under our plan the progressive nature of the tax system will be maintained. We do know that under our plan more money will go into the pockets of hardworking Australians. We do know under our plan that household consumption will be boosted, that overall economic activity will be a boosted and that we can continue Australia's success of 28 consecutive years of economic growth. While those opposite want to talk down the economy at every opportunity, we say on this side of the House that, yes, there are serious challenges. There are challenges in the housing market, there are challenges as a result of drought and there are challenges in the global economic outlook. But at the same time we have a AAA credit rating, we have net debt to GDP of around 20 per cent and we have also created over 1.3 million new jobs, including 40,000 new jobs over the last month.

The Labor Party have torn themselves to pieces over the last few weeks having different positions every day—whether it's because they can't commit in 2024-25, even though they have long-term spending commitments and tax hikes. You heard from the member for Hunter that the Labor Party should not block these tax cuts.

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