Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What an extraordinary contribution! There are some terms that are unparliamentary, so I won't say what they are. Workers on low and middle incomes in this country were held hostage by this government. Like the cowards that they are, they put the low- and middle-income earners of this country in front of their bodies and said, 'If you don't vote for the entire tax package that will give politicians and high-income earners a $7,000-a-year tax cut, you don't get the tax cut for low- and middle-income earners. If there's no tax cut for high-income earners, you don't get the tax cut for low-income earners.' That's what this government said. It's an absolute disgrace. They held low- and middle-income earners hostage to their big tax cuts for the big end of town.

In the electorate of Braddon in Tasmania, 39,000 people earn less than $125,000 a year. The tax cut for these workers in Braddon was held hostage so that the Prime Minister and the company directors of Sydney could get their tax cuts. This government is simply not interested in workers. It was willing to sacrifice the tax relief for workers, if the tax cuts for high-income earners did not pass this parliament. The Liberals' high-income tax cuts give every member of this place and the other place, including Senator Hanson, a $7,000-a-year tax cut. Members on this side of the House voted not to give ourselves a $7,000-a-year tax cut. We think that money is better placed in the pockets of low- and middle-income earners. Under us, low- and middle-income earners would get a tax cut of around $900 a year, nearly doubling the low- and middle-income earner tax cuts that the government is providing low- and middle-income earners—$500 under you; $900 under us. That's the difference, and we wouldn't be giving tax cuts to the big end of town.

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