Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I have been savaged in here before, but never like that. This is a government which has delivered a tax system which has cut capital gains tax in half, which has cut the company tax from 36 to 30 per cent, which has abolished the bed tax, the bank account debits tax, the financial institutions duty, stamp duty on marketable securities and stamp duty on unmarketable securities. This government cut income tax in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005, has legislated an income tax cut in 2006, has a tax to GDP ratio which is the eighth lowest in the developed world and has a spending to GDP ratio which is the second lowest in the developed world. So in relation to the Australian taxation system we have made great strides. To the average Australian, the top income tax rate that they will face is 30 per cent up to $80,000 and the people who will be subject to the top rate of tax in Australia will be the three per cent of high-income earners.

That record, as measured by the OECD, is one of the strongest in the OECD. Does that mean that everything in Australia is perfect? Of course not. We are only the eighth best in the OECD. We should aim to be higher than the eighth best in the OECD. We should aim to maintain our position and, if we could, to improve our position; but I can tell you one thing. All of those changes were opposed by a certain political party. We would not have got there if that party had been successful. We also have the memory of the last time the Labor Party promised a tax cut. Did I say ‘promised’? No, it was l-a-w. It just never came about, not for one day.

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