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

Because of the member for Aston's efforts and because of this government, every single taxpayer in Aston will get a tax cut on Monday. The average tax cut in Aston will be $29 a week, and because of the changes we made in the budget 87 per cent of your constituents will get a bigger tax cut than they would have got before.

This is all about the government's efforts to ensure that Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn. We see decent wages as part of the solution to cost-of-living pressures, not part of the problem. New analysis today shows average weekly full-time earnings have gone up $119 a week under this Prime Minister and under this government; they now sit at around $98,000 a year. Since the election full-time earnings have grown on average 4.4 per cent—nearly double what we saw under the wasted decade of those opposite.

Every single taxpayer gets a tax cut on Monday, but the average full-time worker gets $41 a week from Monday. If the same worker had the same wages growth we saw under those opposite and the skewed tax cuts they put forward, that same worker would be $50 worse off each week were it not for our efforts to turn wages around and to give people a decent tax cut to help with the cost of living. Under Labor, people are earning more and will keep more as well.

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