Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move opposition amendments (8) to (11) together:

(8) Schedule 1, item 1, page 4 (line 20) to page 5 (line 2), omit subsection 61-107(1), substitute:

General rule—2018 -2019 income year

(1) The amount of your *tax offset for the 2018-19 income year is set out in the following table in respect of the following income (your relevant income):

(a) if you are an individual—your taxable income for the income year;

(b) if you are a trustee—the amount of the share of *net income referred to in subsection 61-105(2).

(9) Schedule 1, item 1, page 5 (after line 2), after subsection 61-107(1), insert:

General rule—2019 -20 income year and later income years

(1A) The amount of your *tax offset for the 2019-20 income year or a later income year is set out in the following table in respect of the following income (your relevant income):

(a) if you are an individual—your taxable income for the income year;

(b) if you are a trustee—the amount of the share of *net income referred to in subsection 61-105(2).

(10) Schedule 1, item 1, page 5 (line 4), omit "subsection (1)", substitute "subsections (1) and (1A)".

(11) Schedule 1, item 1, page 5 (line 23), omit "subsection (1)", substitute "subsections (1) and (1A)".

This is an opportunity for every member of the House to vote for bigger tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners. We've heard a lot of rhetoric in this debate about one side of the House being the party of lower tax. Well, now they can vote for lower tax. The Leader of the Opposition announced in his budget reply that Labor would deliver bigger and better personal income tax cuts on 1 July 2019. You can imagine, around the country, people thinking, 'Well, that's a good idea.' But you could see the blood drain out of the faces of honourable members opposite, who thought, 'There goes our tax scare campaign.' 'It's a little inconvenient and problematic for our scare campaign,' said the government, 'that the Labor Party now has better and bigger personal income tax cuts for Australians earning up to $125,000 a year.'

A teacher on $65,000 a year will receive a tax cut of $928 under the Labor Party. A couple earning $90,000 and $50,000 respectively will receive a tax cut of $1,855 a year. Will we see this so-called party of lower taxes over there vote for or against these tax cuts? We're giving them the opportunity. Their only argument is to say, 'The Labor Party won't deliver those.' Well, you can make them law right here, right now, tonight. You can make the tax cuts law by legislating them. The reason I suspect they won't is that the government will vote against them. The government will vote against the tax cuts which the Labor Party is proposing and is happy to legislate this evening in this House. The Labor Party is happy to legislate it right now.

The Labor Party can do this because we've made good, difficult but well-calibrated decisions elsewhere in the budget to ensure that this is sensible, sustainable and responsible. The government has done none of those things. They have a modest tax cut on 1 July 2018, which we are happy to support. We just voted for it. That's why we sat with the government to make those tax cuts a reality. We certainly think that they should happen, but we think that they should be the beginning not the end of tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners. We think that, with wages growth at record lows, wages growth hardly keeping up with inflation and cost-of-living pressures on Australians of modest incomes, they deserve a bigger and better tax cut, and the Labor Party will deliver it. We're more than happy to deliver tonight. We're ready to vote for it now, and we will vote for it now, and I look forward to hearing the Treasurer opposing bigger tax cuts for working Australians.

See this speech in context