Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Last week, in an interview on Sky News, the Minister for Finance refused to rule out changes to franking credits and changes to negative gearing, and refused to rule out scrapping stage 3 tax cuts. Will the Treasurer rule out changes to franking credits, negative gearing and scrapping stage 3 tax cuts?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every time the member for Hume opens his mouth, he reminds us why, in the 15 seasons of Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell, there has never been a funnier character than when the member for Hume played himself on Wednesday night. You can see why Shaun Micallef tapped out after 15 seasons: you cannot top the comedic performance of the member for Hume being interviewed by Laura Jayes! The very idea, as the Acting Prime Minister said before, that these characters opposite would have the nerve to ask us about tax and about the cost of living after the wasted decade that they have just presided over. We made our position on tax very clear. What we have said is our priority when it comes to tax reform is multinational taxes. We took to the election, and we will implement in the October budget, a plan to ensure that multinationals pay a fairer share of the tax where they make their profits so that we can fund the services that we desperately need to fund. That's our position. And, as the Acting Prime Minister rightly pointed out, you would think that the dregs of the former government would know better than to come up to this dispatch box—having spent a decade taxing more, borrowing more and spending more but delivering much, much less than its Labor predecessors—and ask us about tax and the cost of living.

As the Acting Prime Minister mentioned a moment ago, those opposite have absolutely no idea, they have absolutely no credibility and, as the Shadow Minister for Finance said, they have absolutely no alternatives to the proposals that we will fund in the budget in October.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The point of order is on relevance. The question was, 'Will the Treasurer rule out changes to franking credits, superannuation, negative gearing and stage 3 tax cuts?' He has gone no way to answering that question.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer is in order. He is referring to tax policy, and I asked him to return to the balance of the question.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've made the government's priorities clear when it comes to tax reform, and those are multinational taxes. As people would have read in the Fin today, there is a measure before the House on franking credits, proposed by the former Treasurer—a fellow called Scott Morrison—in 2016. There's a proposal before the parliament to finish that job that he managed in the MYEFO of 2016.

As the Shadow Minister for Finance has said, those opposite have absolutely no alternatives to what we're proposing in the budget. The member for Hume is already a laughing-stock in this place, the Shadow Minister for Finance is determined to outdo him, and the Leader of the Nationals is no better, talking about the little present that they left the Australian people when the government changed hands. The present that those opposite left the Australian people when government changed hands was skyrocketing inflation, falling real wages and a trillion dollars in debt which is becoming more and more costly for the Australian people to service.