Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why is the Prime Minister increasing taxes on ordinary working Australians by about $300 every year at the same time as wages growth is at record lows?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. The honourable member clearly wasn't paying attention when the parliament increased the $80,000 tax threshold to $87,000, taking half a million middle-income Australians out of going into the second-highest top tax bracket. That was middle-income tax relief already delivered and legislated—no thanks to the Labor Party, of course. Perhaps she's overlooked the way in which we have ensured that, for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth, we have a schools funding policy that is consistent with the recommendations of David Gonski and delivers national, consistent, needs based funding to every school so that, regardless of what system it's in or what state it's in, if it has the same needs it'll get the same funding. This is what the honourable member for Sydney used to talk about. The Labor Party never delivered it. We have delivered it and are delivering billions of dollars of additional funding to schools. Now, of course, in making sure every young Australian has the opportunity to realise their dreams and get ahead according to their likes, what we are doing is ensuring that, with Gonski 2.0, the second part of that study, we will get the recommendations to ensure we get the value and the outcomes in terms of better teaching from that massive additional investment.

The honourable member opposite, when she talked about the cost of living, failed to note that Labor have opposed the National Energy Guarantee. They opposed our action on gas. They mocked our action with retailers. Thousands of Australian families are already saving hundreds of dollars on their energy bills thanks to our efforts and the efforts in particular of the energy minister. And, despite, no doubt, the reservations of the member for Eden-Monaro, they have mocked Snowy 2.0, the biggest battery ever built in the Southern Hemisphere and one that will make renewables reliable.

There is not one part of our policy, whether it is on energy, whether it is on tax or whether it is on investment, that is not delivering better times for Australians and reducing the pressure of higher household expenses and living costs. What about child care? Labor voted against that and yet it is delivering more affordable child care for Australians and families on lower and lower-middle incomes. Now, of course, they want to roll back the tax cuts on small and medium businesses. These are not huge businesses but they employ more than half of the private sector workforce, and we're seeing that growth— (Time expired)