Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on how the government is securing a stronger and better future for all Australians, including those living in rural and regional Australia? Is the Deputy Prime Minister aware of any roadblocks to economic growth in our region?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for his question. Jobs, jobs and more jobs is the focus of the Liberals and Nationals government. This is what we're doing; this is what we're delivering. Today it's all about tax cuts—relief for hardworking Australian families, a better deal for workers. Workers are the people that those opposite once purported to represent. I'm afraid they don't anymore. But I welcome back the member for Maribyrnong. When the tax cuts were being passed, he was lurking up the back there with the whip. We didn't see him. He was very red-faced, very embarrassed. But I tell you what: the tax cuts have passed the House of Representatives, passed the parliament thanks to the laws passed today by this government.

Angela Allen, a nurse at the Lismore Base Hospital in the member for Page's electorate will now pay less tax. She will. Registered nurses earning $75,000, just as many in the Page electorate do, will have an extra $530 in their pockets from the budget year onwards, with an extra $3,740 in their pocket over the first seven years of the tax plan. That's certainly a lot of money for them. We know the key to greater economic growth, the key to greater aspiration and the key to stronger regional communities is jobs and tax cuts. It is not mystifying; it's aspirational; it's happening. The member's electorate has seen a jobs bonanza thanks to the member for Page's hard work, and the policies and the infrastructure investment by this Liberal-Nationals government. In his electorate alone, a thousand jobs will be created thanks to the infrastructure rollout, the regional development investment. The member is part of a team which is delivering on our promise to create a million jobs in five years. But do you know what? We've done it five months early—a million jobs and, today, tax cuts, tax relief, for those hard workers, those people that that side of politics once said that they represented.

The member for Page is part of a team which has delivered small business tax cuts to back local farmers, family businesses and locals having a go. There are plenty of people having a go in the Northern Rivers. The member has been a champion of local infrastructure projects such as the $3.44 billion for the Pacific Highway, $2 billion for the Page Bridge upgrade, $2 billion for Page Road and $3.8 million for bridge replacements in the Clarence Valley and Kyogle. As regional people know, when we build a bridge, Labor puts up a roadblock. When we cut taxes for small businesses, Labor plans to jack them up. They do. Don't look too perplexed—that's exactly what you'll do, Member for McMahon. When we back aspiration, Labor says they're mystified—absolutely mystified! They can't work out why we're doing it. It is because we back workers, we back families and we back small businesses, and we'll keep doing it—right now, until the next election and beyond. (Time expired)

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Preventing Family Violence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why did the Prime Minister team up with One Nation to give themselves a tax cut instead of supporting Labor's plan to give the 63,000 people in Longman who earn less than $125,000 a tax cut of up to $928 a year, almost double the tax cut they'll get from the government? Why won't the Prime Minister do more to help working Australians instead of telling them to get a better job and giving himself and Senator Hanson a $7,000 tax cut?

Mr McCormack interjecting—

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

The Deputy Prime Minister will cease interjecting. The member for Griffith will begin her question again.

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Preventing Family Violence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why did the Prime Minister team up with One Nation to give themselves a tax cut instead of supporting Labor's plan to give the 63,000 people in Longman who earn less than $125,000 a tax cut of up to $928 a year, almost double the tax cut they'll get from the government? Why won't the Prime Minister do more to help working Australians instead of telling them to get a better job and giving himself and Senator Hanson a $7,000 tax cut?

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

I thank the member for her question and the Prime Minister for allowing me to respond. People don't believe Labor on taxes; it's that simple. The Labor Party make all sorts of promises. The one I like at the moment is that the shadow Treasurer says that he's going to put the deficit levy back on and he promises to take it away three years later—he really does! They promise to turn back boats. Yeah, sure you will! Australians do not believe Labor and the promises they make on tax, for the simple reason that Australians know that, every chance Labor gets, they will tax them more. There are 270 billion proof points for that in the tax policies they are taking to the next election: $70 billion in higher personal taxes as a result of the policy they announced this week and voted on accordingly in the parliament this week; $45 billion—there's a $10 billion black hole on this, by the way—or around $5 billion a year on extra taxes on retirees; higher taxes on small businesses, family businesses; higher taxes on superannuation contributions, including the catch-up contributions of women who have had children. Those are all higher taxes.

Labor taxes more. It's tax on under Labor and tax off under the Liberals and the Nationals. For the Labor Party, too much tax is never enough for them, and there's a reason for that. We all know it on this side: they cannot control their spending. It just goes up and up and up and up. The only thing is: their taxes can never keep up with their spending. They come up with taxes that don't raise any money, don't they, the member for Lilley? The member for Lilley came up with a cracker: 'We're going to tax the mining industry at the top of the boom and send them into the ditch.' That was his plan, but then the money didn't turn up. But guess what? They spent the money. They spent all the money. Do you want to know how you get gross debt running at 30 per cent growth real time? That's what happened under the Labor Party. They can't control their spending. That's why they can't control their taxes. When it comes to Labor and taxes, they are unbelievable.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services. Will the minister update the House on why it's important to have tax policies that reward aspiration? Is the minister aware of any threats posed by different approaches?

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. He is a true champion of his constituents, including his newest constituent, James. He, of course, wants Australians to keep more of their hard-earned income, and that is why this government has delivered an income tax plan to provide relief for all of those hardworking Australians. It is a plan that, once completed, will see 94 per cent of Australians, including in his electorate of Berowra, pay no more than 32½c in the dollar.

Unlike those sitting opposite, we understand aspiration. It is not mystifying for us. But it appears that aspiration is not the only thing that mystifies the Leader of the Opposition, his deputy leader and those opposite. They're terribly mystified by the expression 'the top end of town'. The Leader of the Opposition says that his mega retiree tax will hit the top end of town. But let's examine that for a moment. Beryl, a 64-year-old retiree from Devonport in Braddon, earns a very modest $19,000, including $900 in franking credits. Under their mega retiree tax, she will lose not just one dollar or two dollars but every single dollar. She will lose all $900. Graham, a part-pensioner in Caboolture in Longman, would see his self-managed superannuation fund, which receives $5,300 in franking credits, lose $5,300 under their mega retiree tax.

Let me demystify it for the Leader of the Opposition. These people are not millionaires. They are not 'the top end of town'. Yet, under Labor's tax grab, a high-flying CEO earning millions of dollars per year, with a share portfolio around 50 times the size of Beryl's and franking credits around 10 times the size of Graham's, will lose how much under Labor's their mega retiree tax? Absolutely nothing. Justine Keay, Susan Lamb, the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party have turned their backs on retirees. Brett Whiteley, Trevor Ruthenberg and the rest of the coalition team will stand up for retirees and pensioners because we believe in aspiration. We believe in making sure that the people who work hard are rewarded for that hard work and enterprise, and we stand for fairness and equity, unlike those frauds opposite. We on this side of the chamber stand for lower taxes: you stand for higher taxes and can't be trusted.

Mr Conroy interjecting—

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

I've warned and asked the member for Shortland to cease interjecting. I haven't ejected anyone under 94(a). He seems worried about it. You don't have to pack up: just stop interjecting.

Opposition members interjecting—

Certainly a guilty plea!

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. By the time they are fully implemented, stage 3 of the government's personal income tax scheme and its big business tax cut will cost the budget at least $25 billion each and every year. How is it fair that the government is giving $25 billion every single year to business and the top 20 per cent of income earners while it's cutting billions from schools and hospitals?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government is spending more on schools and on hospitals every year, but one of Labor's great falsehoods is that the government is cutting spending on hospitals, for example. They've been driving a bus around Longman. Is it a bus or a truck? It's a large vehicle with a large sign saying that we're cutting spending on the Caboolture Hospital. The reality is that funding from the Commonwealth government to the metro north hospital network in Longman is at record levels.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, it is, absolutely. Funding is higher than ever. Why can we do that? Because we have a strong economy. Without that strong economy, you can't put a life-saving drug onto the PBS the way the Minister for Health does. Labor stopped doing that. They were running out of money because of a weaker economy. A stronger economy enables governments to deliver the essential services that Australians need. Not only will Labor be going to the next election and asking Australians to vote for $70 billion more personal income tax to be paid by them to the government, but, because they pose such a threat to the Australian economy and such a threat to Australian jobs, they pose a threat to the essential services that are receiving increased funding under our government.

The stronger economy we promised in 2016 and the jobs and growth we promised in 2016 are being delivered. We said we would ensure that hardworking Australian families could keep more of the money they earn, and the Senate today has passed the legislation that enables them to do precisely that. That is our commitment. We're backing Australian families. We're backing their aspiration. We're not mystified by it as the Labor Party is today. We understand that Australians want to be able to realise their dreams. They want to be able to get ahead. They want to be able to aspire to higher wages, to start a business and to have their business to do better. They want to be able to realise their dreams. Labor stands in the way. It is contemptuous of the people it was founded to represent. This apparatchik class has abandoned the workers utterly.