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

Thanks to the member for Spence not just for the question but for being an absolute champion for the working people and the families and the pensioners in his local community.

Today is a really important day, because from today there will be a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer. From today there will be energy bill relief for every household. There will be a pay rise for millions of workers on awards. There will be cheaper medicines, and there will be an extra two weeks of paid parental leave. This is how you deliver cost-of-living relief, not with expensive nuclear reactors in 15 years time. The cost-of-living relief which rolls out today is substantial, is meaningful and is responsible. It is the cost-of-living relief that people need and deserve. It's how we ensure that people earn more and keep more of what they earn. We know people are under pressure, and, because we know people are under pressure, more help is on the way today.

We are especially proud of the changes we made to tax to make sure that every Australian taxpayer gets a tax cut, not just some Australians. This is genuine tax reform that lifts thresholds, cuts rates, gets average tax rates down and returns bracket creep at the same time. It means that the average tax cut is $36 a week. An average family or an average household with kids will get $63 a week. If you're on 120 grand, you get $52 a week; on 100 grand, $42 a week; 80 grand, $32 a week. And people on low incomes get a tax cut that those opposite tried to deny them.

Here's the difference: if they had their way, some taxpayers would be missing out on a tax cut today. And when we changed it to say, 'We don't want just some people who are already good incomes to get a tax cut; we want every Australian taxpayer to get a tax cut,' the Leader of the Opposition was so filthy about that that he called for an election. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition said that she would absolutely roll them back in government. The shadow Treasurer said that he'd be taking to the election a policy which is consistent with the old stage 3, until last week, as the PM said. The Leader of the Opposition was asked about this and said, 'Yeah, nah.'

If they had their way, energy bill relief wouldn't be flowing. They voted against it last time. If they had their way, there would be bigger deficits, higher inflation and less help for people who are doing it tough. This side of the House takes a different approach. We are rolling out cost-of-living help. We are the fighting inflation. We are turning big Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses, and we're doing that without smashing the economy.

That cost-of-living help that arrives today is substantial, it's meaningful and it's responsible, and it means that we don't just acknowledge that people are under pressure; we're doing something about it.

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