Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Australia's billionaires increased their wealth by almost $30 million a day in the last year, according to a new Oxfam report. They now hold more wealth than the bottom 40 per cent of the population combined, while everyday Australians struggle to get ahead. Will your government implement a billionaires wealth tax so that all Australians have what they need to live a good life?

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

I thank the member for Ryan for her question. Indeed, inequality in Australia is an issue on which this government is focused. The member is, I think, reflecting a view that many Australians would have when they look at the extraordinary growth in wealth at the very top end, and the fact that many Australians are doing it tough. That is an issue which is absolutely critical, but that's one of the reasons why our focus when it comes to tax cuts was—you might recall, and I'm sure the member voted for it—to change the stage 3 tax cuts. We made sure that, while lifting that top rate at which it cuts in from $180,000 to $190,000, we made sure that we took the same amount—around about $106 billion—and we redistributed it to people who really needed that tax cut. Of course, it was opposed by the Liberal Party and the National Party at that time. But that's why, when we were discussing with the Treasurer and the Finance minister in the lead-up to last year's budget how we could help people, our focus was on lowering that first marginal tax rate down to 15 and 14 per cent. We lowered that so that we targeted people who really needed the action.

The other thing that we have done is to make sure that we have provided government support through measures like the back-to-back rental assistance increases—for the first time—for more than one million households. Tens of thousands of older Australians are receiving a higher rate of JobSeeker, and 1.1 million Australians are benefiting from higher social security payments. That's why we've also made sure that 1.2 million people on low incomes continue to pay no or a reduced Medicare levy. The other thing that we have done is to change the LISTO for people in retirement, to benefit more than 1.3 million Australians.

But, in addition to the tax cuts, one of the things that we took to the election and that will take place is the automatic refund, so that, because of the system that we have put in place, those people who don't benefit from using accountants or trying to minimise their tax will get that automatic kickback in their bank accounts. In addition to that, of course, gender equity has been a big focus. Measures such as paying super on paid parental leave, closing the gender pay gap, lifting the wages of people in aged care and child care—all of these measures as well have been aimed at tackling inequality. That's something that the Australian Labor Party was formed to do and it's something that my government is absolutely committed to.