Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition said:

… higher taxation reduces incentives to work, save and invest, which I believe are essential building blocks for ensuring Australia's long-term economic growth.

I refer also to the words of his own Shadow Treasurer, which under the bookkeeping rules that he will apply to managing a budget if he is Prime Minister means his Treasurer would be a shop steward, not a Treasurer, and they would apply union bookkeeping rules. The Shadow Treasurer said:

People at the upper end of the income scale like a tax cut, and they deserve a tax cut.

The member for Fraser said, 'Humans typically work harder when their tax rate fails.' The Shadow Treasurer—

Opposition members: Fails!

Falls, I should say. The Shadow Treasurer has also said:

There’ll be things like the deficit levy which we wouldn’t do in office …

He has said:

There are items which we might not like, like the deficit levy …

What we know of those opposite and their feigned attacks on this issue is that when they are in government they say that they want to reduce taxes and they think it is really important to reduce the tax burden. That is what I suspect the Leader of the Opposition may well think. But what we know is as the election approaches the political motive of this Leader of the Opposition knows no bounds. There is nothing he will not change, including when they came into this place and they voted for a temporary levy. We honour our promises. This Leader of the Opposition will break any promise, break any word, change any position because of the political opportunism that runs through every single vein in his body. What we know from those opposite is they cannot be trusted to keep a straight line on tax and supporting Australians to work, save and invest.

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