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

I thank the honourable member for Moncrieff for his question and for his work on the finance and treasury committee, where he takes a very keen and very good interest in all of these matters. Can I inform him, and through him the House, that an Australian on average wages, $46,240, in 2007-08 will pay tax of $8,371. If this government had indexed thresholds from 1996, that person on $46,240 would be paying $10,238 in tax. The point I make about this is that if this government had indexed tax thresholds over the 11 years since 1996, a person on average wages would be paying $1,867 more than they will be paying in 2007-08—in other words, over and above indexation there has been a tax cut of 18.2 per cent for a person on average wages. I am going to say that again: over and above indexation there has been a tax cut of $1,867, or 18.2 per cent, for a person on average wages of $46,240.

So you will hear from time to time—and I heard this false claim being made as recently as yesterday from the member for Melbourne—that all the government does is hand back bracket creep. If all the government did was hand back bracket creep then a person on average wages would be paying an additional 18 per cent in tax. No, this government has done much, much more than hand back bracket creep over the last 11 years; this government has handed back bracket creep and provided real tax cuts in addition. This is because the government fundamentally reformed the tax system in 2000 and has now cut tax in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

We are now in the countdown to ‘Fundamental Injustice Day’. As I informed the House yesterday, ‘Fundamental Injustice Day’ is 30 June. It was proclaimed ‘Fundamental Injustice Day’ by the member for Griffith—the Leader of the Opposition—who, in opposing tax reform in this House, said:

When the history of this parliament, this nation and this century is written—

It is almost Churchillian, isn’t it! It is stentorian!

When the history of this parliament, this nation and this century is written, 30 June 1999 will be recorded as a day of fundamental injustice—an injustice which is real, an injustice which is not simply conjured up by the fleeting rhetoric of politicians. It will be recorded as the day when the social compact that has governed this nation for the last 100 years was torn up.

‘Fundamental Injustice Day’, so proclaimed by the Leader of the Opposition, 30 June 1999, was the day when this government swept away the wholesale sales tax, financial institutions duty, bank account debits tax, stamp duty on shares, stamp duty on marketable securities, bed taxes and cut income tax. This day of absolute fundamental injustice has apparently gone down in history as such a terrible day that, if he gets elected, the Leader of the Opposition proposes to do what about it?

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