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

In 1994, when he was a member of this House, after having been elected, as he claimed, with a mandate to reinvigorate socialism. That is what he said in his maiden speech. I wonder if the member for Melbourne remembers saying this in the House:

There should be a return to a tax rate of 60c in the dollar for people earning over $75,000.

That is what he said—a 60c-in-the-dollar tax rate for people earning over $75,000. He might be reading News Weekly over there. It won’t cleanse your soul of socialism, Lindsay, we know.

The Leader of the Opposition believes there should be a red thread running through all government policies. Let me make this point: under this government’s tax reforms you won’t be paying, on $75,000, 60c in the dollar; you will be paying 30c in the dollar. We do not think people on $75,000 ought to be persecuted by some kind of socialist shibboleth. If thinking like that is what you are getting from the person who would be the minister for finance in a Labor government, no wonder Labor will not be telling you about its tax plans before the election. You can’t trust Labor on tax. It never had the wit to reform the taxation system. It does not support our changes and it ought to come clean with the Australian people.

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