Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Honourable members would not be aware of this, but on Monday night in the Gold Lotto draw a couple of terrific people from Logan City, where I represent, won first division. I think they won about $1 million. I want to congratulate them—Nicholas and Cassi, who own News Extra Logan Central, a couple of doors down from my office. The reason I raise this is that it has proved once and for all that in budget week you have a greater probability of winning division 1 in the Gold Lotto than of getting a fair go from the Turnbull government. We know that because of the two defining features of this Turnbull budget.

The first one is that 73,977 people in my electorate will not get a cent by way of a tax cut from this government—that is 82 per cent of my electorate—but a millionaire will get a tax cut of almost $17,000. That says it all. The other defining feature of this budget is that the government are so desperate, as the member for Watson and others have said, to give big business a tax cut—at the same time that they are pulling money out of schools and hospitals—that they are going to redefine every business in Australia, even businesses that are turning over up to $1 billion as a small business. These are well-known small businesses like Porsche Australia, well-known small businesses like the Gladstone Port, which is the biggest port in Queensland, and well-known small businesses like Warner Bros and like Sensis—all redefined as small businesses by those opposite in their desperation to give big business a tax cut and hope that the people in my electorate, in Hunter, in Hotham, in Lalor and in other electorates will not cotton on to the fact that they have prioritised the biggest businesses in this country over schools and hospitals and tax cuts for people we represent in this place.

This is a really stark illustration of what they actually believe on that side of the House. The Prime Minister can wander around trying to be this cuddlier version of Tony Abbott all he likes, but the thing all of them over there have in common is that they still cling to this idea that has been long discredited: trickle-down economics—that if you pile lots and lots of money in to the wealthiest people in our community—

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