Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Last financial year, Origin Energy reported a net profit of more than a billion dollars, listing elevated commodity prices as a contributing factor. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, will the government consider taxing windfall profits to fund cost-of-living measures in the May budget?

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

Thanks to the member for North Sydney for her question. As the home affairs minister rightly points out: at last someone over in that direction who cares about the cost of living. In the most recent budget one of the key initiatives was to get a bigger return sooner from the offshore gas industry when it comes to taxation. That is partly because, as the honourable member rightly identifies in her question, we need to make sure we can fund the quite substantial cost-of-living relief that we have provided in our first two budgets and that we are providing when it comes to our cost-of-living cuts for middle Australia. Obviously in future budgets we will look to provide additional cost-of-living help where that's affordable, responsible, necessary and effective.

So, the principle that is in the question from the member for North Sydney is a principle that we have adopted, trying to raise a bit more tax out of the industry that she identifies in order to fund some of our priorities. Because of that, because of our responsible economic management—whether it's sensible changes to resource taxation, whether it's our changes to multinational tax, whether it's our changes to high-balance superannuation accounts or whether it's our efforts on compliance in a whole range of areas—in addition to the $50 billion of savings that we found in two budgets compared with the zero dollars in savings in their last budget, we have managed to get the budget in much better nick at the same time as we roll out that substantial cost-of-living help: strengthening Medicare, building a future made in Australia, and easing the pressure on families, pensioners and young people in communities like yours and indeed right around Australia.