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

Thank you to the wonderful member for Calwell for the way that she represents the 72,000 taxpayers who will get a tax cut in her community, 90 per cent of whom will get a bigger tax cut because of our changes. Our cost-of-living tax cuts are good for middle Australia, good for workers, families and communities and good for the economy. Every taxpayer right up and down the income scale gets a tax cut, and 84 per cent of taxpayers get a bigger tax cut. Ninety-eight per cent of teachers get a bigger tax cut, 97 per cent of truckies, 96 per cent of cleaners, 91 per cent of police officers, 91 per cent of mechanics and 90 per cent of taxpaying women. Regional workers and workers under 35 get a bigger tax cut because of our changes.

These are the workers that those opposite have tried to dud and diminish, and they're still at it. They say they support our tax cuts, but their heart is not in it. We know this because the Deputy Leader said that, of course and absolutely, they'd try and roll them back. We know this because the shadow Treasurer described bigger tax cuts as Marxism. If they really support these tax cuts, why are they still bagging them? If they think we're wrong about this, why don't they vote against them in the parliament? After five years and everything that's happened in between, all they can come up with is the old stage 3 cuts that the member for Cook announced all those years ago. That's not a policy; that's a defibrillator trying to revive the Morrison government.

They've learned nothing from their decade of division and dysfunction and failure in the economy. That's why their position on tax is indefensible and unsustainable. That's why the Opposition Leader absolutely disintegrated on national TV last night. He doesn't understand that anger is not an alternative. He doesn't understand his nasty negativity is no substitute for economic credibility. Theirs is a recipe for higher inflation, lower wages and smaller tax cuts for the workers of middle Australia. After this week, a few things have been made absolutely clear under this Prime Minister and his government. Only Labor puts people before politics. Only Labor is the party of middle Australia. Only Labor is the party of aspiration. Only Labor is the party of working people, their families and their communities. Only Labor is the party of bigger tax cuts for more people to help with cost of living. That's why we are so proud of the tax cuts in the legislation before the House.

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