Ken Ticehurst (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Would the Treasurer inform the House how changes to Australia’s tax system in this year’s budget are likely to affect workforce participation? Is the Treasurer aware of any alternative policies?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Dobell. I remind the House that this year’s budget cut taxes for all income tax payers by lifting the threshold for the 15c rate and by increasing the low-income tax offset. As the Prime Minister has just said, this has been particularly good for working mothers, who tend to work part time and who have had increased incentive to come back and join the workforce or to take extra time away or to improve their skills. The government is also amending the tax thresholds on 1 July next year so that you will not go onto the higher rate of 40 per cent until you have income over $80,000 and on the top marginal tax rate of 45 per cent until you have income over $180,000.

Are there any alternative tax policies? Apparently not. The member for Lilley went to the National Press Club to reply to the budget and apparently could not find any fault with the budget. More importantly, he said:

I am not anticipating taking forward any significant change to the personal income tax system at this stage.

He went on to say, in relation to tax:

I can’t raise any expectation we could move in that area in terms of the election platform.

It was reported—quite rightly—by the press on the basis of that statement that the Labor Party apparently intends to have no tax policy at the next election. Labor is going to go to the next election without a policy on the most significant area of economic management—tax. When he was asked about this on the weekend, the shadow Treasurer said this:

If Peter Costello wants to know what Labor’s tax policy will be, he can start with our announcement to support every dollar of the tax cuts announced in this year’s budget.

So if we want to find out what the Labor policy is, we have to look at the coalition policy to work it out, which is why I say to the people of Australia: go to the originators and not the imitators. It was not the Labor Party that thought up moving those thresholds and increasing the LITO and producing tax cuts for working mothers. It was not the Labor Party that thought up increasing the threshold for the top tax rate to $180,000. It was not the Labor Party that thought up cutting the top marginal tax rates. Now we find out that if we want to know what Labor thinks, we have to read coalition policy. We have to write our policy and their policy now! Come round and we will write you a few more, if that is what you really want. Nobody in their right mind would believe that the Labor Party want to get elected so they can be a Liberal government. The true explanation is that Labor do have tax plans, but they do not want to tell you about them before the election. They would like to spring them on taxpayers after the election. If they were good plans—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Treasurer has the call.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I am interrupted. I ask you to call for the videotape and do an investigation, as the Labor Party is demanding over the budget reply. If it were a good tax plan, presumably you would hear about it before the election, but if it is no tax plan, you are only going to find out about it after the election. That entitles us to see what the Labor Party has on the record when it comes to tax. One of the people who is on the record more than most is the would-be finance minister in a Labor government, somebody who proudly proclaimed in his maiden speech that he is a socialist. In a speech on the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, in this House in 1994—get a load of this—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

1994?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 1994, when he was a member of this House, after having been elected, as he claimed, with a mandate to reinvigorate socialism. That is what he said in his maiden speech. I wonder if the member for Melbourne remembers saying this in the House:

There should be a return to a tax rate of 60c in the dollar for people earning over $75,000.

That is what he said—a 60c-in-the-dollar tax rate for people earning over $75,000. He might be reading News Weekly over there. It won’t cleanse your soul of socialism, Lindsay, we know.

The Leader of the Opposition believes there should be a red thread running through all government policies. Let me make this point: under this government’s tax reforms you won’t be paying, on $75,000, 60c in the dollar; you will be paying 30c in the dollar. We do not think people on $75,000 ought to be persecuted by some kind of socialist shibboleth. If thinking like that is what you are getting from the person who would be the minister for finance in a Labor government, no wonder Labor will not be telling you about its tax plans before the election. You can’t trust Labor on tax. It never had the wit to reform the taxation system. It does not support our changes and it ought to come clean with the Australian people.