Bridget McKenzie Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development
2:26 pm
My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher. Minister, yesterday in question time, when asked if your government would scrap stage 3 tax cuts, you declared: 'Our policy on these tax cuts hasn't changed'. Can you clarify for the Senate what exactly your policy is?
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service
2:36 pm
I'm very happy to. I've been saying this in this place for some time. I think Senator McKim asks me a question virtually every sitting week about stage 3 tax cuts. The fact is stage 3 tax cuts have been legislated by this chamber. They are in place. Stage 3 will commence in July next year. The policy we took to the election was that those tax cuts remain and our position has not changed. That is what I was saying yesterday. That continues to be our position. I don't think it's a surprise to anyone. That's the position we have had for some time. The position that Senator McKim raises with me on this issue is related to the budget pressures that we have and how we will meet those pressures—and they are real. We have inherited a trillion dollars of Liberal debt. The debt had doubled before the pandemic. We've got a lot of pressures coming our way. We had a lot of time bombs or little booby traps built into the budget that we inherited, and we are working through all those. So there is enormous pressure on the budget. That's the context in which I gave that answer yesterday.
Sue Lines President
Senator McKenzie, your first supplementary question?
Bridget McKenzie Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development
2:38 pm
Minister, given you've stated numerous times that your government policy hasn't changed in relation to the stage 3 tax cuts, can you guarantee it won't be subject to change in the future?
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service
Our policy on the tax cuts has not changed. That is the position that we are in. We have made our position clear in relation to taxation changes around multinational tax reform, which were put in place in the October budget, and there is the modest change that we've announced in relation to superannuation. But the issue more broadly around how we manage the budget is real. I want people to understand that we inherited a budget in a complete—
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service
I've answered the question.
Bridget McKenzie Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development
Thank you, President. My point of order is on relevance. I asked if it wouldn't be subject to change in the future. The minister, in response to my first question, answered whether the policy had changed to the present. My question was about future changes to this particular policy area.
Sue Lines President
The minister has answered the first part of your question, and you've just reminded her of the second part.
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service
I did answer the question when I answered Senator McKenzie's supplementary. Our position on tax cuts hasn't changed. But we are in the position of having to repair a budget that was vandalised by those opposite for a decade. They are budget vandals that have left a $50 billion structural deficit despite them rorting and pork-barrelling all around the country. (Time expired)
Bridget McKenzie Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development
2:40 pm
You know they're on the run when they just go on the attack and refuse to answer the question. My second supplementary: why won't your government demonstrate the same level of transparency it called for in opposition and actually rule out further changes to the stage 3 tax cuts?
Honourable senators inte rjecting—
Sue Lines President
I'm going to wait for order before I call the minister. Order!
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service
When I reflect on ways to describe the Morrison government, transparency is not one of those issues that springs to mind as one of those first ways that you would describe it. I think there are a lot of words, a lot of adjectives, you would use, but transparency is not one of them. We are 10 months—
Unidentified interjection - Hansard doesn't record who said this
Hon. Senators:
Honourable senators interjecting—
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service
Transparency is not one of those words. We're 10 months into cleaning up—
Jenny McAllister NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy
What about integrity?
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service
No, integrity would not be another one. We could play word bingo, couldn't we!
Murray Watt Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
What about rorts?
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service
Rorts, tick!
Government senators interjecting—
Sue Lines President
Order! Order on my right!
Senator Watt, I have a senator on her feet.
Bridget McKenzie Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development
A point of order on relevance: you called for a level of transparency in opposition, and I'm asking you why you won't demonstrate that level of transparency when in government.
Sue Lines President
That was part of your question. You also referred to the previous government. I believe that the minister is being relevant.
Bridget McKenzie Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development
A point of order. The question doesn't refer to the previous government at all.
Sue Lines President
You said 'as we did' which does refer to the previous government.
Bridget McKenzie Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development
They did.
Sue Lines President
I believe the minister is being relevant. She has 21 seconds to go.
Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service
The question was about transparency, and we are being transparent. We're being very transparent with the budget mess that we inherited from those budget vandals opposite: a $50 billion structural deficit every year, pork-barrelling all around the country, $1 trillion of Liberal debt and not enough to show for it. That's the transparency, and we are being honest with the Australian people about it. (Time expired)