Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was talking about how this government's budget measures are not helping income earners, but I do take your point about getting back to the measures in this bill.

This bill says everything you need to know about this government's agenda and its fiscal incompetence, and its mean-spiritedness towards low- and middle-income-earning Australians. This bill is exactly like the eighth budget handed down by this tired government. It's been designed with one goal in mind: re-election. Just do enough to get re-elected. Don't worry about the long term. Don't worry about what's needed for the country or the economy in the long term. Just do enough to get re-elected. Beyond the spin and the headlines, beyond our media addicted Prime Minister, we can see the government for what it really is: tired, out of touch and out of time.

We see a government actively lowering workers' wages while providing tax relief to the wealthy. We've seen penalty rate cuts. We've seen stagnant wages. We've seen no plan to lift wages. Now we see before us a bill that offers temporary tax relief. It extends temporary tax relief, for low- and middle-income earners, not permanent tax relief. We see a government attempting to implement policies that hit working families the hardest, and we see a government willing to smash the Australian way of life to boost the coffers of its highest-income-earning mates, the highest-income-earning lawyers, judges and politicians who are doing the best out of this government and its tax relief policies.

Remember, this mates-rates deal for high-income earners has been pitched by the Treasurer as a stimulus measure to support the recovery of our economy, but it's one that benefits only the very highest-income earners permanently. It doesn't look after average wage earners permanently. They're left out in the cold to fend for themselves: flat wages, their super under attack and now only temporary tax relief. Not only is it unfair but it is risking the Australian values that we've all come to cherish.

While we do support this bill for the temporary tax relief it offers, let it be known that these temporary measures will not undo eight long years of record low wages growth, chronically high underemployment and a shameless disregard for the Australian values of fairness and equality.

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