Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I represent a community in the western suburbs of Melbourne, the outer west of Melbourne, which is one of our fastest growing areas in the country. The median personal weekly income is $801, and the median yearly income is $41,000. So I agree with this MPI that we need to see tax reform, which is why I'm so proud to stand in this place and support the cost-of-living relief tax cuts that do both relief and reform.

I'm going to be blunt. The community I represent, that I've just described, has the highest number of infants in the country and the highest number of people in their early 30s in the country. I'm going to tell you: it also has some of the highest aspiration in the country, and I see that every day in the schools when I get an opportunity to visit them. I'm a proud member for that community in this place. Our tax reform that's in this parliament now will support my community much more than the Morrison stage 3 tax cuts that were put into this parliament prior to the last election and would have rolled out on 1 July this year.

I can tell my colleagues, as I've told several this week, that I was losing sleep on how I was going to look my community in the eye on 1 July, when I know the mortgage stress they're under and when I know the cost-of-living pressures they're under. We've been working so hard to roll back the costs in health, with the minister at the table—working so hard to support people. How was I going to look them in the eye if this had become law on 1 July and I'd got a $9½ thousand tax cut while most of my community got nothing?

So I am really, really proud to be a part of this government that actually understands that, when tough decisions have to be made, you've got to make them, but that also has an eye always on middle Australia. In this place, there are 151 representatives from around the country, and I tell my community all the time that my job here is to tell our story, to influence the decisions that this place makes. Well, our story is that these tax cuts will bring real relief and that any tax reform that isn't about bringing real relief to communities like mine is not a tax reform that I can support. So I support this one wholeheartedly.

I support making super concessions fairer and more affordable, I support ensuring multinationals pay their fair share of tax here in Australia and I support reforms to the petroleum resource rent tax and improving tax compliance, because they all make our tax system fairer. I support our tax reform because it does address bracket creep for the people in my community who are confronted with that move into higher pay that means they pay more tax. Those changes in the thresholds for my community in middle Australia are going to push that further down the road and put more money in their pockets.

I support tax reform that sustains our progressive tax system. I support tax reform that sees every Australian taxpayer as someone worthy of the consideration of this place. I support a government that has created more jobs in its first term than any government on record, because those jobs are coming to my patch and my young people are accessing those jobs. I support this government and its tax reform, because it's not just tax; it's everything else—it's free TAFE; it's cheaper childcare. There are many ways we can support the community. Tax reform is one. I'm really proud to be a member of this Labor government.

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