Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased that the member for Goldstein came in at that point, because the unfortunate, inconvenient reality of the numbers in the Treasurer's own budget is that the two highest-taxing governments of the last three decades have been the Howard government, No.1, and the Morrison government, No. 2. And so this absolute rot, this absolute rubbish, this absolute bollocks that we hear from those opposite about their being the party of low taxes is not borne out by any number in the Treasurer's own budget. This is not a number that we've put into the public domain. If you go to the back of Budget Paper No. 1 and you look at the historical tables, it's very clear there. They've laid it out for us in quite a simple way—the highest-taxing government. Well, actually, the highest-taxing government on record ever is the Howard government; the second highest-taxing over the last 30 years is the Morrison government. So enough of this rubbish about being the party of low taxes. Taxes have never been higher than they were under Howard and, in the last 30 years, have never been higher than they have been under Prime Minister Morrison.

I know that those opposite have their slogans and they have their spin. The unfortunate thing is that the back of the Treasurer's own budget paper says that those claims made by those opposite are nothing more than a lie, frankly. They've lied about this repeatedly. We should have a debate in this country about the appropriate level of tax, but that debate should be informed by facts. I'm happy to use the Treasurer's own numbers when it comes to the level of tax in the economy. Those opposite like to talk about what a great prime minister Prime Minister Howard was. They need to acknowledge that Prime Minister Howard was also the highest-taxing prime minister in the history of the Commonwealth, much higher—much, much higher—than Prime Minister Whitlam and higher than Prime Minister Hawke, Prime Minister Keating, Prime Minister Rudd and Prime Minister Gillard. The gold medallist when it comes to tax is Prime Minister Howard. The silver medallist in the last 30 years is Prime Minister Morrison. So let's have those facts on the table.

Those opposite are not the party of lower taxes when you look at the historical record. But they are the party of the highest debt we've ever had in the Commonwealth—a trillion dollars in debt, with too little to show for it. They are, and the Productivity Commission belled the cat overnight, the party of weak productivity growth. They are the party of stagnant wages growth. They are the party of stagnant business investment. They are the party that likes to talk a big game when it comes to economic management, but, when you line up all of those facts across all of those areas that I've just mentioned, then once again their claims are exposed for the hollow, shameless spin that they are.

These bills are about extending LMITO. We're happy to do that—happy to support that initiative from the budget. But, as we do so, let's have a bit of perspective about the claims made around it.

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