Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Relief So Working Australians Keep More Of Their Money) Bill 2019.

I notice that the member for Burt has been repositioned closer to the dispatch box—much well deserved—from the outer regions where he used to sit. It reminds me of something that one of his personal heroes, Donald Rumsfeld, once said, 'There are some people who be; that's just a fact, and we don't know why.' I know that there are professors of semantics who wondered what Donald Rumsfeld was saying, but listening to the Leader of the Opposition I believe he was talking about that speech!

Six weeks ago, the answer was $400 billion in new taxes. Six weeks later, the answer is $150 billion in tax cuts, but the problem is that the government is not doing it fast enough. But then he said that we're doing it too fast! Then again, the answer might be infrastructure projects. But, then again, we're not doing enough of them. And, then again, we're doing them in the wrong place. Then again, if we could just do it even better it would be great!

Three years ago the people of Mackellar, in what was clearly a shock for them, elected me to this place. In the time since that happened I never thought I would hear a member of the Greens party say that they were concerned about the position of the budget. But that changed today, because the member for Melbourne has become a fiscal conservative in line with the best. He is showing Kevin Rudd up to be something that he never really was in the first place. He's concerned that we're not giving enough tax cuts, because inequality has gone up. It's actually down, but soon it will be up again. But, then again, we should be spending more on education, because we're only spending record amounts now. But if we spent more then something that isn't would be and then we wouldn't need to worry about it at all.

With an opposition like that, who needs frenemies? The truth is that this parliament should pass these tax cuts quickly. What is the point of elections if we put policies to the people, let them decide and then this parliament decides not to pass them? It is good economics. Lower-taxing countries are countries where there is more hope and more opportunity for the people who live in them. That's an important thing.

This government is in favour of hope. This government is in favour of providing more opportunities. Lower taxes incentivise innovation. If you are going to take risks, it is important that those risks get rewarded. Lower taxes mean that the people who take a risk get to keep more of the fruits from what they have sown. It reverses bracket creep. The member for Melbourne is concerned about inequality. Well, what about the inequality of bracket creep, where when you work harder you get less money because the government is taking more money? This reverses that.

It provides the stimulus that the RBA governor is demanding this parliament provide. The member for Melbourne and those opposite speak at length about what the Governor of the Reserve Bank wants and what the RBA has done today. He has made it absolutely clear that what this parliament should do is seek to put as much money back into the pockets of the people of Australia as we can. This bill does that. It also provides credible tax incentives for up to 94 per cent of Australian taxpayers, for them to work harder, earn more and keep what they earn.

Some say that this is about equity. I say to those people that this rewards hard work. I say to them that it reverses bracket creep. There are some who claim that we should spend more on services. Well I say to those opposite who claim that that we are already spending record amounts of money on health, education, mental health and infrastructure. There is very little more that this parliament can do to allocate more resources to those things that we consider to be important. It is not our money; it is theirs. That is what those opposite seem to forget. They think that it is the government who gives people money and that it allows them to keep part of it because that is the kind thing for that government to do. It is their money. We take it from them; we are stewards of their money. And while we spend it properly and sensibly to the benefit of them and our nation and our community as a whole, it is incumbent upon us to leave as much of it as we possibly can with them because it is their money. In short, the arguments against this are, frankly, the product of the eternal sunshine of a spotless mind. This is good economics; it is the right thing to do democratically, and it will make this a fairer and better society.

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