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

We've just been through an election with two alternative propositions. The one on this side of the House was giving tax cuts to every single Australian taxpayer, all 14 million of them, building on the tax cuts that we introduced and implemented from 1 July last year, making a saving of around $50 for people out there, for average workers, making a difference—not just representing people who are members of parliament but representing the people who are in our constituencies. And, when we made that announcement, I well recall those opposite saying that they would roll it back. Absolutely, they would roll it back. I well remember that.

So, when the Treasurer came to the budget in March of this year with a proposition for not one but two tax cuts over the next term—this term now—of government, we thought, 'Well, they'll just wave it through. They won't commit to the same position that they did last time,' which was to say they opposed it before they knew what it was. Then they said they'd roll it back and then they said we should have an early election on it. But sure enough, as night follows day, we overestimated them, because what they did was say they were opposed to it, then they voted against it and then they said they would introduce legislation into this parliament during this term to increase taxation for all 14 million Australians.

But it takes some credit—given the question asks about debt as well as taxation. Not only did they actually have a plan to increase taxation; they had a plan to increase the deficit over two years as well. Creative, if nothing else, are those opposite.

We have reduced the debt by $177 billion. We produced two budget surpluses and a reduced deficit from the current year and for the years—

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