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

I completely reject the premise of the question. Senator Waters is false. We have baked tax relief for low- and middle-income earners into our tax system through legislation passed by this parliament. They say it's just for one year—no, no, no. What they're referring to here is the fact we have extended by another year the low- and middle-income tax offset. We are in fact doubling the income tax relief available for low- and middle-income earners. You have completely misread the announcement.

What we have done here is bring forward income tax relief that was due to come into effect from 2022 and instead is going to come into effect from 1 July 2020. For those who have already benefited from this income tax relief because they were first cab off the rank when it came to providing income tax relief in our previous legislation, we have effectively doubled their income tax relief for this year.