Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Schools) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution to the debate on this bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Plan) Bill 2018, allegedly the centrepiece and possibly the only substantive element in the budget. I was here before question time for the contribution of the assistant minister, who spoke in a manner that was true to his sense of Australia's priorities. But at the end of his contribution he spoke of this bill representing competing visions for the Australian economy. I can't agree with that. I think there is a stark division between Labor's vision for Australia and for Australians and what is being offered by the present government—but only one side has a vision. It's only Labor that has a vision for Australia's future.

The member for Bruce spoke, effectively, in the MPI debate about the excess of hubris which causes the government to describe this bill as being part of an economic plan. There is no such plan. All we have in place of evidence, in place of a well-reasoned pathway to a destination, are some very well-thumbed, highlighted and tabbed-up copies of The Fountainhead. That's what this is all about. It is an absolute triumph of ideology—and a pretty bleak ideology for those Australians who rely on government to give them a chance of a decent life. The ideology is seen perhaps at its rawest in some of the discussions around this bill. We saw it again in question time today, the notion from government members that taxation is theft. This is crazy stuff. I think it is important that I put on the record my view, that of the great American jurist, Justice Holmes, that taxes are the price of civilisation. In fact, I think they're a bit more than that, because they shape civilisation; they point to the values we have, the things that we value and the things that we would like to change, as well as securing the sort of revenue that a society needs to function and that businesses need to prosper through.

It's striking again to see, as we thumb through the budget, the absence of a meaningful investment in infrastructure. If we really are serious about meeting our productivity challenge, that's something that should be at the core of any responsible government and the core of any economic plan that is about securing economic growth which is inclusive. It's not evidenced anywhere in the budget and it's certainly not evidenced in this bill, the alleged centrepiece. Of course, we see government members describe this bill, with its three tranches, as being a long-term policy, but, of course, we are asked to support, in toto, a long-term policy in the absence of long-term costings. It's quite extraordinary. I was pleased to hear that a government senator seems to think that we will be provided with some further information as to the cost to revenue. I hope that she is right and that the parliament and the Australian people get to see the revenue impact of this reckless piece of legislation, because it is just that: it is reckless in so many senses.

Many speakers on this side have highlighted their concern that, to get to the promised land at the end of these personal income tax cut arrangements, people will have to vote for this government not once, not twice, but three times, possibly more depending upon how many elections we're dragged into at the whim of the Prime Minister or as the Prime Minister seeks to secure his position from within his party room. What we don't have is any meaningful basis to work through the revenue impact. For government members to talk about our recklessness when it comes to fiscal matters in this context is nothing less than shocking. What is at the core of this proposition is an attack on the progressivity of Australia's income taxation system, and with that I think an attack on Australian egalitarianism. Some government members are honest to say so; others I've heard try to claim that the arrangements here are in fact progressive. I find that absolutely extraordinary.

Leaving aside the philosophical debate, when you go to the empirical, it's all very, very clear. Whether you look at the work of Grattan, NATSEM or The Australia Institute, what we see here is a plan to bake in income inequality, and not just income inequality at large. The Australia Institute makes very clear that the proposals contained in this legislation would very significantly increase the income inequality that currently and unfairly separates men and women. Two-thirds of the benefit of these cuts will go to men and, of course, when we look at the whole of the government's so-called economic plan, the cuts contained within the rest of the budget overwhelmingly impact on women. Whatever else this personal income tax proposal is, it's bad news for Australian women.

It's also very bad news for Australians who believe in a more equal society at large, and any perusal of these analyses will make that abundantly clear. The description of the Grattan Institute, which is not always a friend of the Labor Party on economic matters, says:

… modelling … highlights costly cuts to taxes for high-income earners … Most of the revenue reductions … are the result of lower taxes on high-income earners.

Interestingly, given the constant recourse of government members to reference to dealing with bracket creep, Grattan go on to say:

The plan … will do little to unwind bracket creep's gradual reduction of the progressivity of the tax system.

I think that's a really interesting thing, because that seems to be the main justification that's offered up, other than the Ayn Rand mantras that are recited.

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