Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

By referring to the deficit levy, I assume the honourable member is referring to the two per cent surcharge on the top marginal rate introduced in the 2014 budget which honourable members opposite described as a 'deceit tax' and pledged to oppose to the letter. They condemned it as a broken promise. Is that the one she is referring to? I think it might be. Honourable members opposite will know very well that the deficit levy was imposed for a term of three years. It expires at the end of this financial year of its own force. This was a surcharge which they condemned as an act of deceit and they denounced it from one end of this place to another.

The reality is this: Australia is a highly taxed country. The member for Fenner would agree with this, I am sure. Our personal income tax rates are high. Our top marginal rate is high compared to other comparable developed economies. In addition to that, the threshold at which it cuts in, at about 2.2 times average weekly earnings, is very low compared to the United Kingdom, New Zealand or indeed the United States—and many other countries as well. So Australians are paying high taxes already. What we need to do is ensure that Australians have the incentive to work and invest, and that is what we have done—we have reduced taxes for half a million middle-income Australians in last year's budget, and we are reducing tax for businesses, starting with small and medium businesses, because we know, as Labor once did, that if you reduce tax on companies the beneficiaries are workers through more jobs and higher wages.

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