Alice Jordan-Baird (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. How will the Albanese Labor government's tax reform and cost-of-living relief help Australians get ahead? How does that compare to other approaches?

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

I thank the member for Gorton for her question but also for the outstanding contribution she is already making to our team as a first-term MP.

This is a really important day for tax reform in this country. Today we make progress on the difficult but necessary reforms which have been in the too-hard basket for too long in Australia. Today we are one step closer to a fair go for first home buyers, more tax cuts for Australian workers and a fairer tax system. Economic reform and especially tax reform is never easy, but it's worth it. Every time there's major tax reform in this country, there are multiple pieces of legislation and multiple waves of consultation, and that's what we are engaged in right now. But securing the agreement of the parliament for our tax reforms means that we are now putting the core elements of those reforms in place.

We are also giving effect to the details the PM and I announced in Sydney last week, which means that every active small business now has access to concessions and carve-outs. We are strengthening the rules that limit borrowing by super funds, consistent with the recommendations of the Murray review that those opposite commissioned, and dealing with the risks identified by the financial regulators.

The three right-wing parties in this country have vacated the field on reform, and they've left first home buyers and workers hanging as a consequence. That whole three-ring circus over there share a divisive anti-worker agenda. They don't support tax cuts for workers or a fair go for first home buyers. As the PM said, Senator Cash in the other place has said that they will repeal this legislation. We've heard this story before, when the member for Hume last said that they would repeal tax cuts. That's one of the reasons why they sit over there in much fewer numbers than in the last parliamentary term. They shouldn't have listened to him then. They shouldn't be listening to him now. By repealing the legislation, they would be taking the small-business concessional threshold back from $10 million down to $2 million. What a genius! Do not listen to the member for Hume.

We are delivering cost-of-living help and we are delivering real change. We're making petrol and diesel cheaper in a temporary, targeted and tapered way. We're delivering higher wages and lower taxes for workers in an ongoing way. That's paid for by reforms which will make it easier for young people and first home buyers who have been locked out of the housing market in this country for too long. Addressing that challenge is what today is all about. It's why the agreement of the Senate is so welcome and so important.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

There was far too much noise during that answer. I'm not happy with the level of noise or yelling that is occurring. There can be interjections but not yelling. I've got to just take the temperature down today because it just keeps going and going, and it's in no-one's interests for that to continue.