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

The government's personal income tax plan rewards aspiration. It encourages Australians to get on and have a go. It gets rid of bracket creep across that huge spectrum of incomes between $41,000 and $200,000 as 94 per cent of Australians won't have to pay more than 32.5c in any extra dollar.

I will give three additional reasons why Labor's plan lets down hardworking Australians on middle incomes. A police sergeant in Queensland—could be working in Longman, perhaps—would pay, under Labor's alternative, $1,253 more tax. A school principal in Tasmania—might be in Braddon—would pay an extra $3½ thousand more tax. A police inspector in South Australia—might be working in Mayo—would pay $4,050 more tax.

The Labor Party talks about millionaires and billionaires, paying little attention to the reality that everything they are doing is patronising and seeking to hold back hardworking Australians who want to get ahead. Only the most arrogant and out-of-touch Deputy Leader of the Opposition would say aspiration was a mystery. How out of touch do you have to be to be mystified by aspiration? How smug about your big government salaries do you have to be to say you're mystified by aspiration? I tell you what: we understand aspiration drives the nation forward. It is the powerhouse; it is the ambition that we seek to support and enable, and Labor seeks to hold back.

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