Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The top 10 per cent of income earners are getting the vast majority of the Turnbull government's tax cuts. In fact, politicians will get a tax cut, while 75 per cent of Australians will get none at all—surely a sign that the Treasurer has got it horribly wrong. Pensioners in Moreton will be hundreds of dollars worse off each year due to Mr Turnbull's budget. Single pensioners will be $366 a year worse off and couples $550 a year worse off. And the government has done that despite the tripling of the budget, as announced by Treasurer Morrison.

This budget is looking after the big end of town, while cutting payments to families, pensioners, schools and hospitals. So desperate is Mr Turnbull to give a tax cut to the top end of town, he has even changed the definition of a small business. This budget puts big business and high-income earners before families. It is an un-Australian budget. This budget does nothing to set up Australia for the future. In fact, this budget will undermine our egalitarian future at a time when wages growth is the lowest it has been since they have been recording wages increases, and also when we are becoming a more unequal society. The president of the AMA—not exactly a friend of the Labor Party—Professor Brian Owler said about this budget: 'The poorest, the sickest and the most vulnerable will be the hardest hit.' Now more than ever, the difference between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party could not be any starker.

Honourable members interjecting—

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