Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

'My word is my bond.' So said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He looked Australians in the eye and knowingly and repeatedly misled them—about 100 times, in fact. This Prime Minister has committed a breach of trust on a scale not seen since Julia Gillard's infamous 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' And Australians will not forget this.

There are three things I want to say about the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Tax Cuts) Bill 2024. No. 1 is that it is a gross breach of trust with the Australian people. Secondly, it leaves out to dry a great majority of Australians, and they are Australians who are earning an income of between $130,000 and $190,000 a year. While these are income levels that are significantly above the national average Australian income level, many of these people reside in my electorate. Indeed, in order to purchase a home in my electorate they need to be on an income of that level. These are the Australians the Prime Minister and the Labor government, those on the other side, have completely let down with this process. Thirdly, the Prime Minister and Treasurer Chalmers have missed an opportunity to deliver and to continue to deliver real tax reform that was started under the former coalition government.

Turning to broken promises, if the Prime Minister can mislead Australia so blatantly, how can anyone ever believe anything he says ever again? How can we trust that when he says he will make no changes to negative gearing there'll be no changes to the tax treatment of the family home and that he won't jump into bed again with the Greens and look at pursuing some of their tax reform ideas, such as a wealth tax, an inheritance tax? How can Australians ever believe a word the Prime Minister says?

This broken promise about the stage 3 tax cuts is about the Prime Minister's political future. It's not about long-term benefits for Australians. It's not about the long-term benefits of reforming our taxation system and bringing about secure and firm economic management. We're now aware that the government asked Treasury to look at options, including revising stage 3, as early as 11 December last year. But, following that, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer continued to state at least a dozen times that they hadn't changed their position on stage 3. And this was legislation that both Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers both voted for in the previous parliament. If they are so committed to changing their position, why wouldn't they have simply come to Australians and said, 'We've changed our mind, and this is why.' Instead, 'My word is my bond' continued to be the mantra.

So this is nothing but a political response from the government. It's not a proper cost-of-living response. It's obvious from these changes that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer aren't serious about Australia's long-term economic prosperity. All they care about is politics, not genuine tax reform and long-term prosperity. We can clearly see that when we also know that the Dunkley by-election is coming up, and the Treasurer of course gave that train-wreck interview on Monday night where he confirmed that the government didn't want to wait until after the Dunkley by-election to announce changes. So these changes have been brought in simply to shore up a by-election and not in the long-term interest of the Australian economy. Remarkably, the Prime Minister this morning was calling on the coalition to vote against his own bill—absolutely remarkable: short-term political tactics aimed at wedging those of us on this side rather than looking at genuine economic reform. But Australians are smart. Australians can see right through this sort of politicking. Meanwhile, there are thousands of Australians who will now be worse off without the 37c tax rate disappearing from our taxation system. That will be not just in the short term and not just after 1 July but into the future, as we see more and more Australians impacted by bracket creep.

Again, this is reflective of this government's economic mismanagement, and we've seen this in the cut to Australians' living standards by at least 8.6 per cent. That's $8,000 a year that Australians used to have that they now don't have—$160 a week. If you have a mortgage, it's even worse. Average mortgage holders in Australia are now paying $24,000 to $30,000 more a year than they were under the coalition government. That's at least $500 per week in take-home pay. This is not sustainable for these people. The average renter is now paying $100 more per week than they were paying under the coalition government. These increases in housing costs are all attributable to economic mismanagement. It's a failure by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer to rein in inflation which has led to 12 consecutive interest rate rises. This is what is really impacting Australians with their housing costs.

On this side, we have heard Australians in our electorates crying out for help with cost of living for 18 months, yet it only seemed to occur to the Prime Minister and the Treasurer over summer that Australians are in a cost-of-living crisis. We've now got the Dunkley by-election coming up so, suddenly, they are masquerading that they are delivering real tax reform. The coalition will be supporting these laws, and that's on the basis that we are committed to lower, simpler and fairer taxes. That's why we won't oppose the reduction in the 19c tax rate to 16c, for example. It's why in the first place we brought in a suite of tax reforms. We brought in stage 1 and stage 2, which showed our commitment to reducing income tax for Australians on low and middle incomes. Stage 3 was intended then to address those Australians on higher incomes. Many of these Australians are earning between $130,000 and $190,000. While that is an income that is significantly above the average Australian wage of $85,000 per year, these people have been forgotten by this government. Many of these people, in my electorate, for example, need an income of that amount to be able to pay their rent or their mortgage in that electorate. That is the same for many who live in our cities throughout Australia, whether that be in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.

As we move into the election, the coalition will demonstrate that it is still committed to real tax reform and to real, proper economic management. We'll be going to the election with a tax reform package in keeping with these stage 3 tax reforms and more. That's because they were good reforms. They removed the 37c tax bracket, demonstrating our commitment to fighting bracket creep and enshrining aspiration for Australians. As a matter of fact, these reforms were so good that those on that side voted for them when they came in. Our package, therefore, will deliver lower, simpler and fairer taxes. We will fight bracket creep and enshrine aspiration into our tax system. We will reward hard work and support a strong economy where every Australian can get ahead. We will unite Australians through a tax policy, rather than pitting Australians against each other and trying to bring in the cultural wars and the income wars of the class wars of the past. Our package will be delivered while providing for Australia's future security and guaranteeing the essential services that Australians rely upon. Before we go to the election, the package will be fully costed and ready to implement when we are elected. Most importantly, we will keep our promises. Our word will be our bond. When we turn to the provisions of the bill, we see that it makes several changes to the already legislated stage 3 tax cuts, but, in particular, it has not removed the 37c tax rate, which was vital for us to look at addressing long-term bracket creep and to ensure—

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