Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker! Seriously, Mr Deputy Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the Tax Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Reduction) Bill 2008. If we ever needed a reason not to support the tax cuts in the form that they are in this piece of legislation, I think that we have seen that in the last four to five days in the debate that we have all participated in over the possible downgrading of income to carers and in the politics that has been played in contemplating the possible disregard for carers and pensioners. The debate has been played out in here, and the Prime Minister has made various considerations, maybe based on political ramifications, maybe based on reality or maybe based on being overseas when the issue blew up. Irrespective of why that has happened, I think it has highlighted one of the reasons that we should not pursue the tax cuts in this legislation.

The government is obviously concerned about inflation, and most other people are as well. It is obviously concerned about the Reserve Bank’s reaction to the interaction of inflation brackets and interest rates and the impact that will have on mortgage holders and on our competitive arrangements in terms of some of our—

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