Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It's good news, Deputy Speaker Chester, because on 1 July this year, 13.6 million Australians are going to get a tax cut. Every Australian worker, every Australian taxpayer, will get a tax cut—and the vast majority of them are going to get a bigger tax cut than they would have under this miserable mob over there. I've just listened to the member for Lyne talk for about 15 minutes, complaining that workers in his electorate are getting paid too much. He's complaining that, somehow, the only people who have aspiration in this country are people who earn more than $140,000 a year. And he was complaining that workers who look after people with disabilities and work in the care sector are getting paid too much. He'd like to see their wages reduced.

I can understand that that's the position of the member for Lyne, because that's the position of the coalition. The Labor government has a very different view.

It has a very different view, as the member for Macarthur reminds me. In speaking in favour of these tax cuts in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Tax Cuts) Bill 2024, I'll also speak against the amendment which was moved by the member for Hume.

The member for Macarthur reminds me that the reason we're able to do this is because we've been managing the economy in a responsible fashion. For nine long years, the coalition promised to introduce a balanced budget. They had T-shirts and coffee cups printed promoting a balanced budget, but they never delivered one. Well, we've delivered one, and I can tell the House that the budget is in very, very good shape at the moment. And because it's in very good shape, we're able to deliver a better tax package and deliver better results for the overwhelming majority of Australians.

When it comes to managing the budget, we're also retiring debt. And for the love of all things sacred, haven't we needed to do that? Because when we came into government, we succeeded a government that gave us the most debt and the biggest deficit—in fact, not just the biggest deficit, the biggest two deficits—in our nation's history, and record debt approaching $1 trillion. I can inform the House that, contrary to the assertions made in the amendment moved by the member for Hume, we're retiring debt, and that we're retiring debt at a record rate: over 80 per cent of the new revenue that came through in the first two budgets delivered under the Albanese government has gone not into new spending but into retiring debt and paying down the debt of the Morrison-Turnbull-Abbott governments. Wages are growing. That offends the member for Lyne, as it offends the member for Hume and as it offends most of the members on the other side. But it doesn't offend us, because it's a deliberate strategy to get wages moving again. That's in contrast to those opposite, where the deliberate strategy—the design feature—of their economic plan was to suppress wages. They are moving again, and I, for one, am very pleased about that because there are two sides to the cost-of-living equation. They are: How much money have you got in your pocket? And how much have you got to expend on groceries, rent, mortgage, fuel and other things? Wages moving again is actually a good story. We're delighted that under our workplace relations reform we're making it easier for workers to bargain for a wage increase with their employer, enhancing productivity, but also ensuring that the lowest-paid workers in the country have got an award wage rise. It's a very good thing.

I'm surprised that the member for Lyne, like other members of the National Party, is opposed to it. The National Party represent the poorest electorates in the country, where they have the largest proportion of workers reliant on minimum award wages. It's extraordinary that a person could be elected to parliament but not go in to bat for the interests of the people that they represent.

Right across the board we're balancing the budget, retiring debt, getting wages moving again and ensuring that we're creating jobs. We want to ensure that, through our responsible budget management, we're able to bring those people up who are struggling and who need the support of the government. But the best thing that we can do as a government is ensure that we're creating the economic conditions to grow employment. I can tell you that there have been more jobs created under the first two years of the Albanese government than under any government in postwar history. It really is a tremendous record.

I said at the outset that 13.6 million people will get a tax cut. That's 13.6 million taxpayers. Whether you're in the highest tax bracket or the lowest tax bracket, you're going to get a tax cut. About 11.5 million Australians will get a bigger tax cut than they would have under those opposite. For the life of me, I can't see why they are so angry about what we're proposing to do. Average income earners will now be getting a tax cut of $29 a week.

I did see the Deputy Leader of the Opposition waving around a fistful of lobsters, saying that this was miserly. I've got to say that there's a touch of snobbery in that. I know that, in my electorate, in the member for Macarthur's electorate and in so many other electorates that we represent, if you put an extra $20 per week, let alone an extra $29 a week, in somebody's pocket—and that's real money—it makes a difference. I wouldn't be scornful of that and saying that it's not even worth it, as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition did. She had some quite excited things to say about our plan. I don't know whether it's still the position of the coalition, but she informed all Australians, when we announced our plans, that if they won government they'd roll it back, that they'd reverse those changes. Maybe it is their plan; maybe it isn't. It's up to the member for Farrer, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, to clarify the coalition's position on that.

It didn't take me too long to form a position on it. When I look at the impact it has on my own electorate, around 70,000 people in the electorate of Whitlam will receive a tax cut. The national average—and this is a good story—is that around 84½ to 85 per cent of Australian taxpayers are going to be better off under our plan. But in my own electorate 87 per cent of taxpayers will be better off.

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