Amanda Stoker (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm so pleased to be back in this chamber to contribute to the debate and to take this opportunity to acknowledge all of the new senators in this chamber in the context of replying to the address given by the Governor-General, because there can be no greater honour than sitting in this place and making your mark on governing what I think is a nation of enormous potential. It is so wonderful in particular to be able to welcome my Queensland colleagues in Gerard Rennick, Susie McDonald and Paul Scarr.

We've recently been through an election campaign. In many ways the tone of it was, I felt, out of step with how so many Australians feel about themselves. In so many ways it flogged class warfare, attempted to turn Australians against one other—neighbour against neighbour, young people against retirees, employees against employers and the well-off against those who are on hard times. The fact that Labor continues down this vein I think is shown by the way that Senator Bilyk has in her address in reply just now talked so much about the top end of town.

The truth is here in Australia we have so much more in common than we have in differences. One of the most common characteristics, a long-held attribute of our culture and our identity, is aspiration. Australians chose a government that values, that understands and that wants to foster that aspiration to grow opportunities for them to chase their own perfect version of a great life—to chase their dreams of a new job or a promotion, to get a home of their own, to pay it off, to provide for their family, to save for their retirement. These are all noble pursuits. I'm proud to serve as part of a government which puts on its priority list policies which recognise and reward hard work, effort and achievement—something we should always celebrate.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Relief so Working Australians Keep More of Their Money) Bill 2019, which while being a mouthful nevertheless passed in our first week, is one of the best and earliest examples of how this government is committed to rewarding hardworking Australians. The tax cuts acknowledge that working Australians should be rewarded for their efforts, for their achievements, for doing their overtime or for investing in new skills so that their working value, the amount that they can command as wages of work, increases over and over.

The cuts give immediate relief to low-income earners, people who earn up to $37,000 per annum. It does that by increasing the base offset from $200 to $255 for the 2018-19 tax year. The changes to the base offset flow on to those with an income between $37,001 and $48,000—an increase to 7½c per dollar from the previous level of 3c per dollar. For those on incomes of between $48,000 and $90,000, the benefit from the base offset increase will be great; they will receive tax relief of $1,080.

These tax cuts are sensible, they're fully costed and they're practical. They take the pressure off employers, who are often under the pump, particularly in our small businesses, who often really struggle to make ends meet, and allow our workers to take home a real increase in their wages, giving taxpayers like them more of their own money back. In effect, it gives a wage rise in practical terms: more money in their pockets. And that is as it should be.

The Treasurer and the Minister for Finance did an excellent job in so many areas of the recent budget, and this is one where I think they did particularly good work. Now, passing that legislation doesn't mean we're done, of course; it doesn't mean we plan to sit back for the next 34 months. We have a program that is all about making it easier for Australians to go about their daily lives with minimal interference or input from a big or interfering government, giving them the freedom to choose what they want to do with their money, what they want to do with their lives, while also making sure that we've got the incentives in the right place—and you can always count on this government to put incentives behind people who absolutely want to work and get ahead.

One of the major concerns that ordinary Australians raised with us in the course of the election campaign was the disturbing level of influence that the Australian Council of Trade Unions had over the opposition leader at that time and over the Labor Party as a whole. The leader of the ACTU is in many ways politically tone-deaf to the concerns of people in small businesses—and in bigger businesses—and non-union workers about the often bullying conduct of some unions and some individuals within them. We know that the head of the ACTU is on record as having absolutely no regard for the law unless it's one that she particularly likes and agrees with. But the law isn't optional. We all have to comply with it, and from time to time there are laws that none of us particularly like. That's just the nature of being in a country where we govern for all. It means we are expected to comply with the law even if we don't like it. If the head of the ACTU would like to change the law, she's got an avenue for doing that. But, no, she will just ignore those laws she doesn't like and, indeed, encourage those under her influence to ignore them when it's inconvenient. It's not so hard for them to manage that, given the enormous funds they have in their coffers to be able to pay fines and penalties that reflect that lawlessness.

Over the years, we have seen so many heads of unions exposed for various types of misconduct, whether that's misuse of union funds, cronyism, nepotism, or bullying and intimidation. More recently, this misconduct has raised serious questions about whether the union movement is prepared to tackle tolerance of domestic violence within its own ranks. But, when unions become so powerful that they fear nothing at all, is it any wonder that there are some employers who have to deal with them who are frustrated by their interactions? Is it any wonder that there are many employees that would rather not be compelled to be involved? Tackling lawlessness in unions and holding them to account is vital to business confidence, to productivity and to profitability. These aren't terrible things. 'Profit' is not a dirty word. These are things that allow people to earn higher wages. Businesses need to make money so that they can employ more people. They need to make money so that they can pay more money to the staff they have.

You'd think that those were things that the Labor Party would value, but they don't. In fact, they'd rather get in the way of it, and the policies that they took to the last election concerning re-regulation of the labour market, centrally setting wages and the like were job-killing policies. Those policies don't have anything to do with job creation. In fact, Labor in government would rather be able to centrally set wages at high levels, to their liking, even if that comes at the expense of the many Australians who desperately want a job.