Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question and the Prime Minister for allowing me to respond. People don't believe Labor on taxes; it's that simple. The Labor Party make all sorts of promises. The one I like at the moment is that the shadow Treasurer says that he's going to put the deficit levy back on and he promises to take it away three years later—he really does! They promise to turn back boats. Yeah, sure you will! Australians do not believe Labor and the promises they make on tax, for the simple reason that Australians know that, every chance Labor gets, they will tax them more. There are 270 billion proof points for that in the tax policies they are taking to the next election: $70 billion in higher personal taxes as a result of the policy they announced this week and voted on accordingly in the parliament this week; $45 billion—there's a $10 billion black hole on this, by the way—or around $5 billion a year on extra taxes on retirees; higher taxes on small businesses, family businesses; higher taxes on superannuation contributions, including the catch-up contributions of women who have had children. Those are all higher taxes.

Labor taxes more. It's tax on under Labor and tax off under the Liberals and the Nationals. For the Labor Party, too much tax is never enough for them, and there's a reason for that. We all know it on this side: they cannot control their spending. It just goes up and up and up and up. The only thing is: their taxes can never keep up with their spending. They come up with taxes that don't raise any money, don't they, the member for Lilley? The member for Lilley came up with a cracker: 'We're going to tax the mining industry at the top of the boom and send them into the ditch.' That was his plan, but then the money didn't turn up. But guess what? They spent the money. They spent all the money. Do you want to know how you get gross debt running at 30 per cent growth real time? That's what happened under the Labor Party. They can't control their spending. That's why they can't control their taxes. When it comes to Labor and taxes, they are unbelievable.

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