Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor's tax plan joins other Labor legacies, including child care and paid parental leave, as amongst the biggest economic leavers supporting women who want to work more. With 53 per cent women, the Albanese government understands that gender equality and women's economic advancement go hand in hand. We get it. But there are other beneficiaries. Ninety-eight per cent of 18- to 26-year-olds will get a tax cut, when many of these people would have got absolutely nothing under Morrison's old tax plan. These are children. These are sons and daughters. They're nieces, nephews and grandkids. This is the intergenerational dividend that we are bringing forth with this new plan.

A uni student working part time and earning $27 per hour could receive a tax cut of up to $500. A nurse on $76,000 would get a tax cut of nearly $1,600. A couple saving up for their first home with a combined income of $150,000 could get a combined tax cut of just over $3,000. A person who is a town planner, for example, on $90,000 could get a tax cut of nearly $2,000. An events manager on $85,000 could get a tax cut of just under $2,000. And a person earning $200,000 will still get a tax cut of $4,500 or thereabouts. Advice from the Treasury and the RBA is that Labor's tax cuts will deliver more relief for more workers without adding to inflationary pressures or burdening the budget. I encourage all of my constituents to read the Treasury advice, which we did release.

A massive leaver that sweeps over the nation bringing more to all Australians when they need it most and rewarding their efforts is the essence of aspiration. Aspiration is not the monopoly of the few. It belongs to every single Australian. My own story and that of my parents is testament to that. The Grattan Institute recently torpedoed the coalition's claims around bracket creep. The Grattan Institute's own independent analysis found that these tax cuts would ensure that 83 per cent of taxpayers will actually be better off in a decade from now.

But then there are constituents in my community who have been disappointed with this change. These people are in the higher income bracket and they constitute around one in four taxpayers in Higgins. Those who earn $150,000 and above will still get a tax cut. In fact, they will receive the biggest tax cut of all. We are, for the first time in 16 years, raising the highest tax threshold from $180,000 to 190,000. Higher income earners do a lot of the heavy lifting, as far as tax revenue is concerned, and these people have budgeted for this additional money. Many of them have, like everyone else, outgoings, except their outgoings tend to be a quantum higher—school fees, childcare fees, private health insurance, rent, mortgages. They bought homes at a time when the RBA advised them that interest rates would be flat and now, of course, they are getting stung with high interest rates, like many other Australians. They are no different. These people, rightly, where waiting for tax relief. Well, we are giving them tax relief by raising the tax threshold to $190,000 and they are also getting a tax cut. But I do want to acknowledge their disappointment.

However, for all they complain, the Liberals in their decade of government did not provide higher income earners with any tax relief, even during good economic weather, and I think real questions need to be asked. Instead, they legislated the stage 3 tax cuts to kick in five years later, effectively kicking the can down the road. As the Prime Minister said at the National Press Club on 25 January this year, pretending you knew exactly what the economy would look like in five years was a triumph of hope over experience and economic reality. Now the party of robodebt and car park rorts question our integrity. Integrity in leadership means making the right decisions, rather than the easy ones. An inflexible government unwilling to adapt to changing economic realities is, frankly, irresponsible and even dangerous. When there is clearly a better option for cost-of-living pressures, workforce participation, women and the economy, not making the change is irresponsible. I liken this to when I practised as a doctor. I would see a patient scheduled for surgery and they had a healthcare plan. If that patient then came back three weeks later having had a heart attack and stroke, do you think that their medical plan is going to be the same? Of course not. The medical plan would completely change.

Now, we can spend hours debating the intricacies of tax reform but until we reform our political norms we will be unable to have mature conversations about our future. When everything gets weaponised, we are all poorer for it. Australians are under pressure right now, and it is crystal clear that every taxpayer up and down the income scale needs and deserves tax relief. We are being responsive to challenging economic times by applying the same agility that is demanded, in fact expected, in every other field, whether it be business, medicine or finance, by delivering better tax cuts that come with an economic dividend. We owe it to all Australian taxpayers and, most importantly, to each other to do more.

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