We have been able to reduce taxes for millions of Australian businesses—for 3.3 million small and medium businesses which collectively employ over half of the Australian private sector workforce. While we believe in lower taxes, we also believe that paying tax is not optional; it's compulsory. We've introduced and passed through this parliament, in the teeth of opposition from the Labor Party, the toughest multinational tax avoidance laws in the OECD. We've taken on that challenge and we've delivered it, and it has returned over $7 billion of revenue to the Commonwealth's tax net as a result. It is a signal achievement of the Treasurer to be able to get that through the parliament, and it's one of the reasons our revenues are stronger. It's one of the reasons we're able to afford personal income tax for millions of Australians. Over four million Australians will get $530 back this current financial year. Over the whole period to 2024-25, we'll see a reform that will eliminate bracket creep for 94 per cent of Australians.
We're also taking action to ensure that families have less burden of expense in respect of child care. One million Australian families will be better off by up to $1,300 per year per child as a result of our reforms. It's why we've been able to fully fund the NDIS, it's why we're able to spend record amounts on health and schools and it's why we're able to bring 1,700 new lifesaving drugs onto the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme—because we have a strong economy and the revenues to pay for it. What did Labor do? They deferred the listing of lifesaving drugs on the PBS because they didn't have the money. They lost control of the budget and, as a consequence, essential services were put at risk.
We're spending record amounts on all of those vital areas of health, education and infrastructure. On top of that, we are starting to see our energy policies deliver lower energy prices. We're looking after Australian families. The Labor Party has long abandoned them.
]]>Australia needs to have competitive taxes. There is no question about that, and the time will come, no doubt, when people on the other side of the House will go back to reading the member for McMahon's book on that very subject. But the reality is that in this place we have to live with what we can work through the Senate and this is something we have not been able to achieve.
In terms of tax, it's very clear where the line is between us and Labor. Labor wants higher taxes; we're for lower taxes and we're delivering lower taxes. Labor wants to go after the savings of retirees; we are defending them. Labor wants higher energy prices; we're delivering lower energy prices. Labor wants to have less investment; we want to have more investment. What that means is that Labor's economic policies mean less investment, fewer jobs and lower wages. That is why Labor is such a threat to the Australian economy and why thousands of Australian businesses and millions of Australian families are threatened by Labor's absolute, reckless disregard for looking after the workers it claims to represent.
]]>The reality is that we took our Enterprise Tax Plan to the election. We won the election. We were able, despite many naysayers, to legislate that part of it that delivers lower taxes for small and medium companies—overwhelmingly. Australian owned family companies. That is already driving record jobs growth in our country. It's driving strong economic growth, stronger than any of the biggest economies, with 3.1 per cent GDP growth. And last year we saw over 400,000 jobs created.
Now, that is delivering. But the reality is that the iron laws of arithmetic, which everyone pays attention to here, they are—
]]>In terms of schools, again, the Labor lies are rolled out. We're spending a record $249.8 billion over the next 10 years on schools and we've cleaned up Labor's 27 'special deals' that saw students getting less funding in one state than in another. In terms of national security, Labor neglected our Australian Defence. They did not commission one new naval ship in their whole time in office. We have 53 vessels either under construction or under design, and that is because we are determined to keep Australia safe and we are able to pay for it because of the stronger economy that delivers stronger government revenues, and enables us, in addition to doing all that, to bring the budget back into balance a year early.
The alternative that Labor offers us is an abandonment of every principle and value the Labor Party used to stand for. The Labor Party used to stand for aspiration. Not anymore. It's a mystery. They used to stand for people getting ahead and having a go. Not anymore. We have the politics of envy being rolled out in every electorate around the country. Labor is going after small businesses, family owned businesses. It's going after businesses—no matter how small they are, it wants them to pay more tax. It's going after individual taxpayers. It's going after retirees. I heard the Leader of the Opposition talk about self-funded retirees. Well, the Leader of the Opposition is going after their savings. Anyone with a portfolio with Australian shares in it—that type of investor or self-funded retiree—the Labor Party wants to take away 30 per cent of their income. It is a cash grab that will leave all of those families short. That's the Labor approach: going after families, going after self-funded retirees and going after businesses. And their energy policies can have only one result, which is higher and higher energy prices.
We are taking action to defend Australian families, get taxes down, electricity prices down, jobs up and investment up—the energetic economic growth that we need which results in higher wages, as we're starting to see. That's our commitment. We're standing up for Australian families, and for the Australian workers that the Leader of the Opposition abandoned in his union career and now abandons in this chamber.
]]>We hear from the Leader of the Opposition his complaints about economic management. Stronger economic growth than any of the G7 economies, record jobs growth, the lowest unemployment rate since 2012, the lowest youth unemployment rate since 2012 and the highest female participation rate—that is what you get from a strong economy, and that is what we're delivering. We have delivered lower taxes for small and medium Australian businesses. These are overwhelmingly family-owned businesses, and these are businesses turning over less than $50 million a year, which employ over half the private sector workforce. These are not big companies. These are not giant multinationals. But they're employing millions of Australians and they are employing more of them because of our reforms.
The honourable member refers to energy. Let's be quite clear about this. The Labor Party's policies on energy are a repeat of policies that have failed. They want to have a 50 per cent Renewable Energy Target when we know the Renewable Energy Target was a mistake. It is widely recognised as such, called out by the ACCC. What it did was displace dispatchable power and resulted in huge amounts of renewable power, regardless of what it did to the reliability of the system. And the member for Port Adelaide knows all about that because he comes from South Australia, where energy is at its most expensive and its least reliable.
What we're committed to doing is delivering cheaper power. Prices fell in the June quarter 1.3 per cent, not a huge fall but they're coming down. And we've seen lower prices quoted by retailers for the current quarter. The new default market offer that we are going to establish, based on the recommendation from the ACCC inquiry which we initiated, will result in substantial savings for consumers and for businesses—for consumers, up to $416 a year and for small businesses, $1,457 a year.
Ms Butler interjecting—
]]>Right through this parliament, we have been able, despite his negativity, to deliver one great economic step in advancing the interests of hardworking Australian families. The Leader of the Opposition doesn't seem to care that last year we had the largest jobs growth in Australia's history, the largest jobs growth in any single year, over 400,000 jobs. And we have economic growth which is now faster, higher, than any of the G7 economies. Economic management is a key priority for governments. There you are. Highest jobs growth, high economic growth and employment. We now have unemployment at its lowest level since November 2012. We want to see it lower and we want to see wages growth higher, but what we are doing is delivering stronger economic growth, more jobs and lower unemployment. What that will deliver, as the Reserve Bank was saying only today, is higher wages, and we are starting to see that movement in higher wages. It all comes from a stronger economy. That, we've been able to do at the same time as we have reduced taxes for Australians, Australian families.
We've introduced and passed through the House—with a one-seat majority, he reminds me of regularly—and through the Senate, where we are in a minority, the largest personal income tax reform in 20 years. So hardworking Australian families, middle-income taxpayers, are getting $530 back each during this current financial year.
Mr Snowdon interjecting—
]]>We have further to go. We've got more to do. And so, 15 months ago, the Treasurer commissioned the consumer watchdog, the ACCC, to look rigorously, deeply and thoroughly into this problem of high retail electricity prices. The commissioner's report has recommended a number of vital measures which we are taking up. We're going to take up his suggestion of directing the Energy Regulator to create a new benchmark price, a new default price. That'll be monitored by the ACCC and the regulator to ensure that savings are being passed on to customers. That means that, instead of people falling onto standing offers which are often very, very high and result in them paying hundreds of dollars more than they need to, there'll be one default offer. We are advised by the ACCC this will save 1.2 million consumers up to $416 a year and small and medium businesses up to just under $1,500 a year. That is the result of a report by the ACCC which we commissioned.
We're also going to ensure that the ACCC has the measures and the means to ensure the big companies do the right thing by their customers. We are prepared to have them ordered to divest parts of their businesses in order to stop cartels and the monopolistic behaviour that is jacking up electricity prices and not protecting the interests of the consumers, the people, that the companies are meant to serve.
]]>Mr Dreyfus interjecting—
]]>Dr Aly interjecting—
They used to believe, member for Cowan, in aspiration—until it became a mystery to her colleague on the front bench.
Honourable members interjecting—
The fact of the matter is that we are delivering strong economic growth faster than any of the G7 economies—record jobs growth, lower taxes and more investment in essential services than ever before—and we are turning the corner on energy prices, bringing them down. Labor, on the other hand, wants higher taxes, higher energy prices, less employment, less investment, slower economic growth and lower wages. That would be the consequence of a Labor government.
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