House debates
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
Questions without Notice
Economy
2:30 pm
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source
What this government contemplates as part of a broader debate is: how can we reduce the burden on Australians who are working and saving and investing, because the taxes on their earnings are getting higher and higher? Those opposite have no thought of empathy or compassion for those who are working more every day and have to pay higher taxes; no empathy whatsoever for small businesses who are working harder every day and are getting no relief in the tax system for their extra effort. On this side of the House we know that that is a priority, but you have to be able to pay for it. These are the decisions that governments have to make, and we are going through a very open process, we are consulting and we are trying to ensure that we have a growth-friendly tax system that supports jobs and supports growth.
Tibor Majlath
Posted on 5 Feb 2016 3:07 pm
Is that due to "bracket creep"? For a start, isn't wages growth at record lows? So, how are wage earners being taxed higher and higher?
Some businesses recently received tax cuts. Who or what pays in this utopian "low tax economy"? Surely, spending cuts can't make up for all the recent, past and future tax cuts?
Economic growth is an ideal. Markets rise and sometimes crash. The assumptions underlying a "growth-friendly tax system" are as unrealistic as the assumptions underlying Howard's faith in the resources boom and China's continued growth. How realistic is the idea that the growth of the economy will always bring in the needed revenue all the while furtively cutting taxes? I do hope that works out well, especially when one doesn't have control over a volatile global economy.
Let's hope the public gets to see this miraculous tax reform well before the election unlike last election eve when the Treasurer waffled in a pool of sweat.