Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Under Labor's tax policy, Australians will be forced to find cash they don't have to pay tax on income they haven't earned. Prime Minister, it takes a lot to unite Paul Keating and John Howard, but both are totally against this unfair tax. Will the Prime Minister abandon his plans to work with the Greens and instead join me, the crossbench, Paul Keating and John Howard to reject this unfair tax?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tax was an issue at the last election. It was an issue on 3 May, and in the budget brought down by the Treasurer in March we had not one tax cut but two tax cuts. We brought forward the legislation before this parliament, we passed it on the Wednesday and then it went through the Senate as well later that day. So, as a direct result of the actions that we have taken, we will see income tax cuts for all 14 million taxpayers, following up from the income tax cuts that we delivered last July for all 14 million taxpayers, delivered on 1 July next year and then a further tax cut on 1 July the year after. Now, that is action that we took, and today, of course, parliament has begun. Our first piece of legislation was to assist people by putting more dollars in their pockets with the 20 per cent cut in student debt, delivering benefits of, on average, $5½ thousand.

But, had we not been successful on 3 May, we know what the first piece of legislation would have been, because, remarkably, those opposite went to an election saying that they would actually introduce legislation to increase income taxes for every single Australian taxpayer by increasing that first marginal tax rate not once but twice.

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

The Prime Minister will pause, and the Leader of the Opposition will take her point of order.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a point of order on relevance. The Prime Minister is not addressing the particular tax that he knows I am asking about: the superannuation tax. The tax that we referred to in the question is not being addressed by the Prime Minister.

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

Order. I know where the Leader of the Opposition is coming from. She was talking about a policy topic about a tax that wasn't mentioned specifically. The Prime Minister was asked about 'under the government's tax policy'. I just remind the Leader of the Opposition that you can't bring new material into the point of order. I understand her point of order—she's trying to get the Prime Minister to talk about a specific topic—but the name of the tax would be helpful for future questions.

I'll just make sure that we deal with this issue of relevance. I remind all members of page 567 of Practice, about direct relevance. We're not getting into bad habits early, but I generally am making sure ministers and the Prime Minister refer to the policy topic. He will need to refine his remarks to regarding the tax policy he was asked about.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am certainly talking about tax policy. That was what I was asked about, and our tax policy is pretty clear. We want people to earn more and we want them to keep more of what they earn. That's our policy. Those opposite, the Liberal and National parties, went to the election on 3 May calling for higher taxes and bigger deficits. That is what their platform was at the election, and no wonder there's a vacancy down there. Those opposite were rejected because Australians do want to earn more and they want to keep more of what they earn. That is what we will deliver.