Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on how the government is keeping taxes under control and providing tax relief to hardworking Australians, including in my electorate of Chisholm? Would a different approach produce a better result?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Chisholm for her question. The government has a personal tax plan for all working Australians, because all working Australians who pay tax work and they all deserve to benefit from a personal tax plan that gives them relief. Over the next 10 years those working Australians will pay more than $3,000 billion in personal income tax over the next decade. We believe a personal tax plan that affords them $140 billion worth of personal tax relief is a great step forward. I was surprised when the opposition came in here and tried to strip that plan by half. They saw it and voted to strip out $70 billion of tax relief for hardworking Australians—to take a $140 billion plan for tax relief and turn it into a $70 billion plan. That's what they've done with the tax plan. They've halved the amount of tax relief that we're seeking to provide.

That plan involves step one, to provide low- to middle-income earners with tax relief, some 60,000 in the member for Chisholm's electorate. But step two, which the Labor Party sought to strip out, does this: it protects those working Australians from the impacts of bracket creep, which strips away their hard-earned wages, as their wages only have to increase by inflation. The Labor Party wants to claw that all back in bracket creep and spend all the money. What it means is that under step two of our plan someone who is earning $76,000 today will pay no more than 32.5 cents over the next decade. You know what they'll pay under the Labor Party? They'll pay 37 cents in the future—someone on $76,000 today.

Step three, as the Prime Minister said, ensures that 94 per cent of Australians will pay no more than 32.5 cents in the dollar. That includes someone who is on an average wage today with full-time earnings of $84,600. Under Labor's plan, in the future they will pay 37 cents. Under our plan they'll pay 32.5 cents. So, our personal tax plan is anchored in middle-income Australia. Those opposite want to strip away the hard-earned wages of Australians by clawing it back in tax. We have to look no further than the member for Batman to understand why. Back in 2016, the member for Batman said: 'We need to stop talking about tax as a burden.' I apologise, but this is a direct quote: she said, 'Tax is a bloody privilege.' Under the Labor Party, if tax is a privilege it will be a very privileged place.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on both sides! Just before I call the member for Hotham, for the sake of all—

Mr Pyne interjecting—

The Leader of the House. I'm going to make the point to the Treasurer and to all members of the House about using unparliamentary language. You can't use a quote to bring unparliamentary language into the House. And I am going to make that point—that was undesirable language. Otherwise, the logical conclusion is that you could find a quote from outside the House that says almost anything. You cannot get around unparliamentary language, and I'm going to make that point as clearly as I can—

Government members interjecting—

Members on my right. If the member for Barker and others can at least allow me to finish the ruling. I make the point that I won't allow that again. I'll take action. The member for Hotham has the call.