Daniel Mulino Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer
2:46 pm
I thank the member for Macarthur for his question. The member for Macarthur understands the importance of the government's tax reforms in helping working Australians and also in making our tax system fairer. The Albanese Labor government believes that Australians who work hard deserve to keep more of what they earn and also that young Australians deserve a fair chance to own their first home. Since the budget we have already legislated significant reforms. This includes providing 13.3 million Australian workers with a permanent $250 per year tax cut through the working Australian tax offset. When we combine this with our other tax cuts and the $1,000 instant tax deduction, an average Australian worker could be around $2,800 better off from 2028. Our reforms to negative gearing and capital gains tax will help support 75,000 more Australians into the housing market as owner-occupiers. We have also made the $20,000 instant asset write-off permanent. This is something that small businesses have been calling out for for years. These reforms are all about making our tax system fairer. That means rewarding hard work, supporting aspiration and ensuring everyone gets their fair share.
The government is now focused on delivering the next tranches of legislation to implement our ambitious tax reform package. We are introducing a minimum tax on discretionary trusts from 1 July 2028. This will improve the fairness, integrity and sustainability of the tax system, and importantly they will help fund the tax cuts for the workers that I outlined above—sustainable, affordable tax cuts. There are legitimate reasons to use trusts, and anyone operating through a discretionary trust can continue to do so. However, the current settings are becoming unsustainable, with the number of discretionary trusts more than doubling over the last 20 years to over 800,000. We know that 90 per cent of trust wealth is held by the wealthiest—
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