Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

As the Leader of the Opposition said a moment ago, this bill does have an absurd title, and it would be more appropriately called the Tax Relief So Working Australians Keep More of Their Money but Not For a Few Years Bill, because that's what the government is proposing in the bill that they're putting forward today: that there be tax relief on the never-never when the economy desperately needs a boost right now. That's why I'm moving the second reading amendment circulated in my name:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House calls on the Government to:

(1)amend the bill to remove the measures that begin in the 2024-25 financial year, so that measures that provide relief now can be passed by the Parliament without delay; and

(2)support the economy by adopting the Opposition's plan to provide income tax relief to every Australian worker from the 2019-20 financial year and bring forward infrastructure investment".

Our position on this tax bill is built on three fundamental principles. The first one, as we saw today with the Reserve Bank cutting rates again, is that the economy desperately needs a boost, and we want to give the economy a boost. The second principle is that everybody—every worker in the Australian economy—deserves to have a tax cut from this week in this parliamentary term and not on the never-never. The third principle is that it is irresponsible to sign up to a $95 billion tax cut which doesn't come in until after the next election five years away.

Our position is based on a reasonable, rational, hard-headed assessment of the economic and budgetary conditions under this third-term government. Let's go through where we are at. These are facts; they're not opinions. This is the slowest economic growth since the global financial crisis. Australia is in the longest per capita recession since the 1982 recession. The national economy has fallen from the eighth-fastest-growing in the OECD in 2013 to the 20th-fastest-growing today. We've got stagnant wages which are growing at one-eighth of the pace of profits. We've got rising underemployment and youth unemployment. We've had five years of weak productivity growth. Productivity has actually fallen every quarter for the last four quarters. We've got weak household spending, weak business conditions, a sluggish retail sector and business investment at the lowest level since the 1990s recession. Living standards are growing more slowly under the Liberals than they were under Labor. The Reserve Bank has had to cut interest rates to one-third of what they were in the darkest days of the global financial crisis, and net debt has more than doubled under those opposite.

The government sees these figures—the same figures that we see, that I've just run through—and they say: 'Look, everything's fine. It can be business as usual.' If you walk down the main street of any of our communities—any of your communities—people will tell you they're worried about the slowing economy, they're worried about stagnant wages, they're worried they won't be able to pay their mortgage and they're worried they won't be able to pay their bills. And, with a record like this, you've got to ask the obvious question. A record like the Treasurer's begs the obvious question: why does he always look so pleased with himself with a record like that? And why does he spend all of his time talking about the Labor Party? Why doesn't he do his actual job in this economy?

You can imagine the Treasurer's day. He rocks into the office at probably about 9.30 or so after a couple of hours in front of the mirror. I know a bit about that office; I've knocked around that office a bit myself over the years. He rocks in and he hands over the overcoat and the briefcase. He wanders into his office and he calls out to his offsider, 'Fetch me my slippers. Fetch me my big stack of Labor transcripts. Fetch me my little yellow highlighter,' and off he disappears, poring over our transcripts and all the things that we've been saying in earlier years. He calls out again and says, 'Look, cancel all of my meetings; I'm going to make a day of this.' And so he spends the day in there, huddled over our transcripts with the little yellow highlighter, and at the end of the day he emerges.

And what does he emerge with? He doesn't emerge with a plan to turn around the floundering economy, a plan for wages or a plan to get things moving again in the Australian economy. He emerges with an opinion piece. In that opinion piece, we had to read and witness that pathetic spectacle of a Treasurer who spends all of his time writing a 42-paragraph opinion piece in which he mentioned Labor in 31 of the paragraphs. What a pathetic spectacle. No wonder this Treasurer has only ever presided over below-trend growth. He is the chief architect of below-average growth from a below-average government. There has never been a bigger, more yawning gap between a treasurer's regard for himself and his actual performance in the economy. If those opposite were doing a good job managing the economy, the Reserve Bank wouldn't have to cut rates again today. There couldn't be a worse time for a government which has no idea and no plan to turn things around. There couldn't be a worse time for this government's approach to the economy.

As the Leader of the Opposition said, we are prepared to do our bit in this place to help the government turn around this floundering economy. We do want to play a constructive and a responsible role in getting things moving again. We do recognise that the economy has deteriorated even since the election. We've seen those national accounts. We've seen those two interest rate cuts. What we're saying is, 'Let's pass stage 1, get them into the economy as soon as possible. Let's pass stage 2 and bring forward some of the benefits of stage 2, so that they can begin to flow this week and not after the next election.' What this would mean is if you earn up to $126,000 you get a tax cut of up to $1,080. If you earn over $90,000 you get a tax cut of up to $1,350 extra brought forward under our plan. What that would do is get more money into the hands of more workers sooner and circulating in an economy which desperately needs a boost after the weak outcomes of the last few years.

Ours is the only plan which gets every worker a tax cut in this parliamentary term. We can do it in a responsible and measured way, which doesn't jeopardise the surpluses that the government has forecast. If they, the so-called party of lower taxes, don't vote for our amendment in a few moments time they will be voting against tax relief for every worker this term. What they will be doing is holding stages 1 and 2 of their own tax policy hostage to a tax cut which doesn't come in for another five years. They are saying to everybody in this parliament, and in the country beyond, that they won't let the parliament commit to a tax cut this week unless we also sign up to a tax cut in 261 weeks time. That is the essence of the position that they are taking. They are prepared to jeopardise tax cuts this term by prioritising the next term when the economy needs a boost now and not in five years time. The government has routinely and regularly got the economy wrong but they want to pretend that they know what it will look like in 2024-25. They haven't said how they'll pay for stage 3. It assumes no downturn. It compromises our ability to deal with a downturn if we commit that $95 billion today to a tax cut in five years time.

Our message for the government is: enough of the finger pointing, the blame shifting and pretending it is somebody else's fault. It is a third-term government now—six years in office. It is long past time to take responsibility for the economy that you have so badly mismanaged. If they spent as much time focused on the economy as they spend focused on us, maybe the economy wouldn't be growing at its slowest rate for a decade.

Today is their opportunity to do the right and responsible thing by the budget and by the economy. Today is their big chance to give every single Australian worker a tax cut this term, to get money flowing into an economy which desperately needs it. If they don't do that they will have to explain to the Australian people why they held tax cuts hostage this week to a tax cut which won't come in for another five years. That's what this debate boils down to tonight in the parliament.

We will move detailed amendments shortly in the other stage, the consideration in detail stage. We call on the government to pick up what is a responsible, sensible and rational proposal that we've made in good faith to try and get the economy going. Growth is not thick on the ground in this economy on their watch and so we need to do what we can to make sure the Reserve Bank isn't doing all the heavy lifting on their own, that they are getting some help from this building and from this government.

To read into the record the second reading amendment, I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House calls on the Government to:

(1) amend the bill to remove the measures that begin in the 2024–25 financial year, so that measures that provide relief now can be passed by the Parliament without delay; and

(2) support the economy by adopting the Opposition's plan to provide income tax relief to every Australian worker from the 2019–20 financial year and bring forward infrastructure investment".

I urge the House to support our sensible amendments now and in the consideration in detail stage. We can work together to get every Australian worker a tax cut flowing from this week, not five years down the track. If the party of lower taxes were serious about that they would support our sensible amendments. They would do something for once about an economy which has slowed substantially on their watch.

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