Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

The actual provisions of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Tax Cuts) Bill 2024 are that the tax on incomes of $18,000 to $45,000 will reduce from 19c to 16c in the dollar and that the flat $45,000 to $200,000 threshold, taxed at 30c in the dollar, will now split into two, where $45,000 to $135,000 will be taxed at 30c and $135,000 to $190,000 will be taxed at 37c. The 37c tax rate was the subject of the coalition's very sensible stage 3 tax cut legislation. Labor has claimed this will be broadly revenue-neutral. However, Treasury has said the measure will cost at least an extra $1.3 billion over the next four years, while, over the medium term, the measure will increase tax receipts by $28 billion over the next decade. This in effect means that, going into the future, this will make a lot of our taxpayers significantly worse off with bracket creep. The fact that the government has not addressed this has shown, yet again, that, since coming to office, the Prime Minister and the government have made the wrong decisions. They've been very distracted by other matters and they have also been breaking promises at every opportunity.

Meanwhile, in the first 18 months of Labor's government, personal income tax has risen by a record 27 per cent. However, the purchasing power of an Australian earning a gross salary of $85,000 has fallen by more than $7,000. It has fallen by $7,600 since Labor came to office, and Labor has no answers as to how to address this. This is a symptom of economic mismanagement, where we still see headline inflation remaining far too high—much higher than most other OECD countries and our competitors.

One of the other objections to this legislation was that this was another broken promise of this Prime Minister and this government. And, just to reiterate, some of those promises that were made before and after the election were that there would be a $275 reduction in energy prices. Broken promise. There will be no change to super taxes. Broken promise. There would be an increase in real wages. Broken promise. There will be no changes to franking credits. Broken promise. 'You will all have cheaper mortgages; all Australians will have cheaper mortgages,' said the Prime Minister during the election campaign. Broken promise. Let's tell that to the average mortgage holder. The average mortgage holder in my electorate of Hughes, for example, is now paying $25,000 a year more. They now have to find $500 a week in after-tax income to pay their mortgage. 'There will be no changes to stage 3 tax cuts,' said the Prime Minister. 'My word is my bond.' Another broken promise.

While it is the case that the coalition will support this legislation because we are a party that is committed to lower taxes, smaller government and less regulation, what is important here is that Australians are now seeing this Prime Minister cannot be trusted. His repetitive oath, 'My word is my bond,' and further broken promises mean that he has broken trust with the Australian people.

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