Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, what we've got to remember is that this is not the government's money; it's the people's money. The government, through this legislation—which we are asking the Senate to support—will ensure that working Australians get to keep more of their own money, on the terms as outlined in the bill. You ask where in the economy that money will go. It will go where individual Australians decide to spend it. Of course, the income tax relief prioritises low- and middle-income earners in the first instance, which will help them deal with cost-of-living pressures. Then, over a period, we're phasing in further reforms which are designed to ensure that bracket creep does not continue to run rampant, unabated. If we don't take the bracket creep monkey off people's backs, if we don't address bracket creep, more and more middle-income earners will be pushed into the higher-income tax brackets. That undermines aspiration and, over time, weakens the economy. If we did nothing, hardworking Australians would actually go backwards, because middle-income earners would be pushed into higher income tax brackets. That has been the core part of this debate. And, of course, we trust individual Australians to make the judgement about where they can best spend their money, on their personal priorities and the priorities of their families.