Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Rice laughs: 'Ha, ha! As a percentage.' 'As a percentage,' Senator Rice says, 'Oh! Oh!' So let me just explain to the chamber what this means. This means that, if they earn $30,000 a year, the value of our proposed personal income tax cut is a reduction of 8.3 per cent in their tax, an 8.3 per cent cut in their tax, in 2018-19, in 2019-20, in 2020-21 and—yes, you guessed it—in 2021-22. And do you know what happens to somebody on $200,000 in that period? Do you know what happens to somebody on $200,000 in the years 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22? The value of the small proportion of the personal income tax cut that flows through to the higher income earners, because we are lifting the threshold from $87,000 to $90,000, is 0.2 per cent—0.2 per cent!

Do you know how much tax somebody who earns $30,000 a year pays? They pay $2,197. I'm really sorry that we can't cut the tax for somebody who pays $2,197 in tax by $5,000! I'm really sorry! Not even this government can cut the tax for somebody who pays $2,197 by $5,000. That is not physically possible. But do you know how much tax somebody who earns $200,000 pays? They pay $67,097. So somebody who earns $30,000 a year pays $2,197, and somebody who earns $200,000 a year pays $67,097. And do you know what? In 2018-19 the percentage of cumulative tax relief is 0.2 per cent, in 2019-20 it is 0.2 per cent and in 2021-22 it is 0.2 per cent.

It's great to see that the Greens have great confidence in the competitiveness of Pauline Hanson's One Nation and the Greens are very confident that Pauline Hanson's One Nation will secure Senate seats in the election after next. We're going to have an election next year. We're going to have another election in 2022, which is when Senator Hanson will be up for re-election, and clearly the Greens have given Senator Hanson their vote of confidence today. Senator Hanson-Young today has expressed a clear, strong and unambiguous vote of confidence that Senator Hanson will be re-elected at the 2022 election. That is the implication of what Senator Hanson-Young has been saying—that outrageous slur that she has directed at Senator Hanson, one of our fellow senators in this chamber.

Let me just explain further to all Australians who might be listening. If you are earning $50,000 a year, you will get, under this package that we are proposing to legislate today, a 6.2 per cent tax cut every single year over the next four years. If you are earning $80,000 a year, it'll be a lesser tax cut, but you're still getting a 2.8 per cent tax cut. So the point is: the more you earn, the lower the value of the tax cut. Obviously, if you pay more tax in nominal terms, in nominal terms it is inevitable that a small—