David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to ask the Assistant Treasurer, through you, Mr Deputy Speaker, a question in relation to taxation policy, which is an area of interest to me in particular. Throughout the course of the election campaign, I know the government—then opposition—made a number of election commitments, but in the course of campaigning throughout my electorate one of the key concerns that people raised with me was the need to improve our taxation system at a number of levels. I think one of the primary concerns is to ensure that we have a fairer system of taxation. The principal concern that people raised in relation to fairness is to ensure that everybody is paying their fair share of tax and that the system has an array of integrity measures in place that ensure that tax is being levied equitably across the board. I would like to ask the Assistant Treasurer to comment on that.

But also the other aspect of what people raised with me is the question of international competitiveness. I know that taxation policy is a key indicator of the international competitiveness of any given economy and there is always a range of measures within the taxation system that can be looked at that will allow us to compare ourselves either favourably or not to other nations on an internationally competitive scorecard.

I would ask that the Assistant Treasurer direct his comments to both questions of fairness, particularly in relation to low- and middle-income earners, and I know that they are the overwhelming majority of taxpayers in my electorate. For a long time they have seen a skewing of where the benefits of taxation policy and tax cuts have been delivered to higher income earners. They are very much concerned that the taxation system—

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