Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

We all remember that the Prime Minister came to office promising honesty and transparency. These are the words he used: my word is my bond. In the last few weeks the people of Australia have seen just how much this Prime Minister's word is actually worth. The legislation before us today is proof that, when the Prime Minister says, 'My word is my bond,' he doesn't actually mean it. He doesn't mean he's actually going to keep his word.

It's important to reflect on how we got to where we are today with the stage 3 tax cuts. How did we get to this point? Much of the media coverage over the last couple of weeks has quite conveniently missed a very important point: you only get to stage 3 of the tax cuts after you have had stage 1 and stage 2 of the legislated stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3 tax cuts.

The coalition, when in government, was committed, and remains committed, to delivering lower, fairer and simpler taxes to the Australian people. We believe Australians work hard for their money, and they get to keep as much as we possibly can let them keep, while we still provide the services and critical infrastructure the government needs to provide on behalf of the population. So we do believe in lower, fairer and simpler taxes in this nation. The irony is while in opposition the Labor Party agreed with us. The Labor Party agreed with stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3 tax cuts. In fact they agreed with us all the way up until the day they didn't. It is quite extraordinary set of circumstances.

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