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

Tax was an issue at the last election. It was an issue on 3 May, and in the budget brought down by the Treasurer in March we had not one tax cut but two tax cuts. We brought forward the legislation before this parliament, we passed it on the Wednesday and then it went through the Senate as well later that day. So, as a direct result of the actions that we have taken, we will see income tax cuts for all 14 million taxpayers, following up from the income tax cuts that we delivered last July for all 14 million taxpayers, delivered on 1 July next year and then a further tax cut on 1 July the year after. Now, that is action that we took, and today, of course, parliament has begun. Our first piece of legislation was to assist people by putting more dollars in their pockets with the 20 per cent cut in student debt, delivering benefits of, on average, $5½ thousand.

But, had we not been successful on 3 May, we know what the first piece of legislation would have been, because, remarkably, those opposite went to an election saying that they would actually introduce legislation to increase income taxes for every single Australian taxpayer by increasing that first marginal tax rate not once but twice.

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