Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I've just answered Senator Babet's question along similar lines. The tax policy that we are implementing is the tax policy we took to the last election, which is around standard deductions. It's also around income tax reductions. I remind everybody that this mob over here, who are now so concerned about tax, were the ones who went to the last election wanting to raise everyone's income tax. Let's just remember that.

I know. It's a little uncomfortable, isn't it, Senator Paterson? You had to go out and sell it every single day—oh, dear. They're now very, very concerned about this matter, after having a policy which was actually to hike up everyone's taxes. But we've been clear. The tax policy we took to the last election is the one that we're implementing, along with a whole range of other measures that we went to the budget over.

In response to Senator Allman-Payne and Senator Babet, we look at the revenue and spending lines of our budgets through every budget process. That is what we've done in our last budgets and that is what we will continue to do. That's what responsible governments do. They look at where the pressures are. They look at how you fund those pressures. They look at savings. We know that this might be a foreign concept to those opposite, who didn't have that fiscal discipline when they were in government. We've delivered surpluses, we've found savings, we've returned money to budget, we've lowered debt, we've lowered interest on that debt and we've been able to invest in those national priorities that people value, and we will continue to do so. (Time expired)