David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian people understand that, when those opposite say they're coming after the big end of town, what they really mean is that they're coming after you. That is because they are coming after Australians from all walks of life, from all economic backgrounds, and they are coming after every single category of Australians. They say that a business with $10 million of revenue is some massive multinational that shouldn't get any support, despite the fact that those businesses are typically suburban family businesses and employ 1.5 million Australians. They say they should not have any support. They say that a crane operator should pay $940 more tax per year. They say that a drilling technician should pay $2,200 extra tax per year. They want a forklift driver to pay almost $4,000 extra tax every year.

That is absolutely true, because they voted against the historic personal tax reform that was passed through this place last week. They voted against that. By doing so, they say to the forklift driver, 'Pay $4,000 more tax,' and for a miner it is $4,061. They want a miner to pay $4,000 more tax. And they say this is about the big end of town. Last time I checked, the definition of 'the big end of town', did not include small businesses, did not include forklift drivers, did not include crane operators and did not include miners. So, every time you hear them say 'the big end of town', what you need to keep in mind is that what they are really doing is coming after virtually all Australians.

And what about retirees? My image of the average retiree is not the same as the image that those opposite would have of some sort of massive multinational corporation. Now, I might be wrong on that, because clearly their view is that a retiree couple that have saved a little bit of money and maybe got $50,000 income a year are the big end of town. That's what they say. They say those retirees are from the big end of town, that they should be penalised through higher taxes and that they should not in any way have their achievements recognised. They say that their taxes should be increased. They shake their heads over there, but what the members opposite need to understand is that they are all individually positioning themselves to become the tax collectors for the Shorten state. That is what they are doing. They will become the tax collectors for the Shorten state. That is absolutely what they will be.

The member for Bruce has a suburban electorate in Melbourne. I'm sure the member for Bruce will be very aggressively distributing pamphlets and maybe sharing some Facebook posts to all the members of his electorate, saying: 'If you happen to be a forklift driver, you're going to pay $4,000 more tax under me. If you happen to be a retiree couple, you are going to pay substantially more tax.' There are no doubt thousands of retirees who would be affected in his electorate. If you opposite believe that to be the right thing to do—and evidently you do, because that's the policy that you've all signed onto—then you should celebrate it and go and tell those retirees that they should pay $5 billion more in tax a year. I'm sure you will do that because I'm sure that you want to be tax collectors. Those opposite want to be tax collectors. They want to smash ordinary Australians with higher taxes.

It was fascinating, wasn't it, to listen to Tasmanian radio today? I don't do it very often. I probably should do it more often, and I might after what I heard today. The member for Bass gave a fantastic contribution. The interviewer asked, 'Do you back your leader?' The member for Bass said, 'Well, that's a matter that's been announced by Mr Shorten.' The interviewer asked, 'So, Ross, you don't support what your leader's done?' The member for Bass said: 'I'm not saying that, Brian. I'm not saying that.' The interviewer said, 'But you're not saying you agree with him either.' 'Let's have a conversation about that another time,' is what the member for Bass said. He didn't want to sign up to this appalling tax increase because he knows that it is poison for jobs in regional Tasmania.

There must be a lot of people in Braddon who are thinking about the upcoming by-election. They know that those opposite represent tax collection on ordinary Australians. They know that, every time they hear those opposite talk about 'the big end of town' or 'evil multinationals', what they're really saying is that they are coming after them. They are coming after ordinary Australians with unprecedented tax increases of some $290 billion. That is absolutely the wrong thing for this country. We are a low-tax government while they want to tax Australians excessively.

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