Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak in favour of Labor's cost-of-living tax cuts. We just heard from a fellow who was Deputy Prime Minister of Australia not once but twice—the sequel no-one wanted! He stood at the dispatch box having been part of a government for the best part of a decade, including twice being Deputy Prime Minister, and spoke about how the electorate that he represents and the electorates that the National Party represents don't have services, don't have infrastructure and don't have support. At the same time, those opposite have gone out there and supported tax cuts which overwhelmingly benefited people in the inner cities, not in regional Australia.

Our tax cuts are aimed squarely at regional Australia and the outer suburbs. Our tax cuts are aimed squarely at Middle Australia. Our tax cuts are aimed squarely at ensuring that people are not left behind. Our tax cuts, unlike the ones that those opposite propose, deliver for all 13.6 million taxpayers, not just some. The former Deputy Prime Minister is right that electorates like his have a lower average wage compared with an electorate like mine. Do you know what people who are on high incomes in my electorate are telling me? They are telling me that our tax cuts are fairer. They understand that a good society means not leaving people behind. They understand that people on average wages—Middle Australia—will get double the tax cut that they were going to get under the previous system.

A shop assistant on $32,000 will get a tax cut of $414. They were going to get nothing. A nurse on $76,000 will get a tax cut of over $1,500. A teacher on $80,000 will get a tax cut of $1,679. A police officer on $110,000 will get a tax cut of $2,429. An IT manager on $160,000 will get a tax cut of $3,729. Every politician will get a tax cut of 4½ thousand dollars. We have made sure that no matter what income you are on, right through the income scale, you will get a significant tax cut compared with your existing income. We understand that people who are on lower than $45,000 do deserve a tax cut, and lowering the rate from 19 per cent to 16 per cent will flow right through the income scales. But we also understand that people right through those income scales are deserving of support, which is why we are lifting the threshold at which 37 per cent comes in from $120,000 to $135,000 and we are lifting the top marginal tax rate from $180,000 to $190,000. That is the first increase in that threshold since 2008, since the Labor Party last occupied the front benches here.

Those opposite sat here for 10 years and did nothing about it. It took a Labor government last time, and it's taken a Labor government this time, to address this issue. In fact, what they did the last time they were in office, after the 2013 election, was that, having said absolutely nothing beforehand, they introduced a so-called deficit levy on high-income earners, an additional tax which lifted up that top rate to the highest it has been in recent times. At the same time, they made cuts to health, cuts to education, cuts to the ABC and cuts to services. At the same time, the bloke who now wants to be Prime Minister came in as health minister and introduced a GP tax, or tried to—a tax on every visit to the doctor. He also tried to introduce a tax for every time people ended up at an emergency department, at the same time he was ripping $50 billion out of the healthcare system. There was no mention of that before the election.

What we have done here is to respond to the needs of our changing economy. Since five years ago, when the Morrison tax plan was put in place, there's been a global pandemic that had a long tail to it, there have been two conflicts—in Russia, with its invasion of Ukraine, and in the Middle East—and there has been global inflation, which has had an impact. Treasury and the Reserve Bank have indicated that those things have had a disproportionate impact on low- and middle-income Australians, and that's why we made not an easy decision but the right decision, done for the right reasons at the right time, to go to the National Press Club, having gone through all of our processes—the ERC, the cabinet, the ministry and our full caucus—and say: 'We are changing our position, and this is why. It's because people are doing it tough, and we want to do everything we can to provide support for the cost of living.'

This comes after the other measures that we've put in place: our energy price relief plan, our cheaper medicines, our fee-free TAFE, our cheaper child care. It comes on top of the measures that we've put in place to increase real wages—which have had an impact, with real wages increasing for two quarters in a row—including our support for an increase in the minimum wage in the last two national wage cases, which has had a significant impact on low-income earners. It comes on top of the 15 per cent increase in wages for the aged-care sector, in accordance with the recommendations of the aged-care royal commission. If you're an aged-care worker you've benefited from the increase in your wage to make sure that you earn more, and now you'll benefit from paying less tax on that increased amount.

Our approach has been to make sure that we deliver for working Australians, and indeed our package means that 84 per cent of taxpayers will be better off than they would have been had this legislation not been given support: 90 per cent of women, 98 per cent of young people, and overwhelmingly people in regional Australia. That is why the National Party member—the bloke elected leader not once but twice—has just come in here and gone on about how tough people do it in regional Australia. How about if they had a political party that stood up for them? The National Party won't, but we on this side of the House, the Labor Party, will stand up for people in regional Australia, which is what we are doing.

It is crystal clear that every taxpayer needs and deserves a meaningful tax cut, and that's what this legislation, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Tax Cuts) Bill 2024, will do. We want Australians to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. The coalition want people to work longer for less. A modest position that was carried just last week in this parliament, to allow for workers not to be punished for being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is going to be overturned by those opposite. The truth is that, as technology has changed the nature of work, legislation must change with it. The government must respond to these changes in work practices. They won't interfere with any commonsense approach to these issues, which is why the right to disconnect is part of enterprise bargaining and a range of arrangements put in place between employers and employees. That's why the Fair Work Commission, under the legislation, will have a commonsense approach, essentially, to these issues. We know there are times when it's entirely appropriate for a worker to be contacted out of hours. What those opposite want, though, once again, is to just fail to move with the times. They just want the world to stop so they can get off. Well, they have got off—they've got off any responsibility from acting in a way that looks after working people and looks after their constituents.

Our position is also made possible by the fact that we have been fiscally responsible. It is what has given us the capacity to put in place those changes in child care and in health care, including the tripling of the bulk-billing incentive in Medicare, and our energy price relief plan that, all the indications are, put a significant downward pressure on inflation. We've put in place those measures whilst delivering the first surplus in 15 years and we've turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus, something that those opposite were never capable of doing.

They committed to having a position going forward in this parliament that would have left people behind and they have voted against all those cost-of-living measures, and now what we see is that they don't talk about it anymore. I may as well take a page out of the Bob Carr book of parliamentary leadership and bring a novel into question time, because we don't get any questions about the cost of living anymore. They never ask. They are completely distracted from any issue. They haven't put any other proposals. What they have done on tax—

If I knew this bloke's seat, I could comment back, but I'm not sure who he is, Mr Speaker!

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