Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That's right. I'm a crooner not a singer.

Honourable members interjecting—

None of us will, although I have to say that the member for Reid does an awesome karaoke night and it's not to be missed. I believe, Mr Deputy Speaker, I have seen you at a couple of those nights, and you've done very well—very well indeed.

I think what we have here—and the member for Fenner touched on it—is actually an ideological and philosophical issue for both sides of parliament. Do you believe that you create a fairer society when you cut taxes? We on this side would say, 'Yes; the answer is absolutely yes,' and we would point to the same experiences that the member for Fenner speaks of. When you look at the United States in the 1980s and the 1990s and you look at the United Kingdom in the 1980s and the 1990s, they had governments on both sides of this divide who instituted tax cuts—both personal and corporate tax cuts—which massively improved equality and fairness in both of those societies, both in the United States under Ronald Reagan and then Bill Clinton and in the United Kingdom under Margaret Thatcher and then under Tony Blair.

Tax cuts are the principle of improving equality of opportunity and fairness in our society. That's why the Treasury Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Plan) Bill 2018 is so critical for what we do. If you want to reduce inequality and you want to quote the Royce-Walinksi model and know that you are going to improve matters, then you need to know that reducing taxes improves inequality in Australian society. Why do we say this? Because it's the only way inequality has ever been reduced anywhere in the world. If you want to go in the other direction—and the member for Fenner knows about this man but he dare not speak his name—just look at the policies of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela: massive taxes and massive government subsidies, and they have a refugee problem. Their people cannot wait to get out of the country, and every day neighbouring countries in South and Central America open their borders so the people of Venezuela can actually buy food across the border. Why? Because of high taxes and government interference. The Labor Party used to know this too. Under the Hawke-Keating government, they realised that as well, and the member for Fenner knows this as well. He wrote an entire book on it. I just looked up the index and not once did he reference Rolling Stone, Ross Gittins or the Royce-Walinksi model. I don't know, maybe it wasn't a well-researched book.

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