Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. This week the Prime Minister told a 60-year-old aged-care worker in Burnie to get a better job. Is he aware that 65-year-old aged-care worker, Elaine Smith from Devonport, has told—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my right will cease interjecting. The member for Franklin will begin her question again. I wish to hear the question. The member for Franklin, if you could start from the beginning. The clock will be reset.

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This week the Prime Minister told a 60-year-old aged-care worker in Burnie to get a better job. Is he aware that 65-year-old aged-care worker Elaine Smith from Devonport has told the Burnie Advocate that the Prime Minister is 'putting people down because they are doing a low paid job'. Is this why the Prime Minister and Senator Hanson teamed up to give aged-care workers a tax cut of just $10 a week and to give themselves a tax cut of $7,000 every year?

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

The 65-year-old worker that wrote to the Devonport paper would expect a member of parliament not to begin her question with a falsehood. She knows very well that what she said about me—what she claimed I said—is not true. It is the Labor Party that says if you're 60 and you're an aged-care worker you can't aspire to earn more, to get a promotion, to get more training, to go from being a nurse to a manager, or to go from being a personal care assistant to a nurse. It's the Labor Party, the party the honourable member is a member of, that wants to keep those workers in their place.

There used to be a time when the Labor Party stood up for workers. There used to be a time when the Labor Party was all about aspiration, when they weren't mystified by aspiration, and when they believed in people getting ahead. Now we have a Labor Party that has voted against Australian workers keeping more of the money they earn.

They've described tax relief as a giveaway. Mr Speaker, do you know why? Because they think that every dollar Australians earn belongs to the government, so, when you reduce tax, the government is giving money away. Well, let me advise the out-of-touch members opposite that Australians believe the money they earn is theirs. It's their hard-earned money, and what they want to do is be able to keep more of it.

Mr Hill interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bruce is warned.

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

What we've been able to achieve today is for them. This has been a win for hardworking Australian families, who will be able to keep more of the money they earn and who will be given every encouragement to dream, to aspire, to have high hopes and to know that when they earn a bit more they will only be paying 32½c in the dollar instead of going into higher and higher tax brackets. This is a massive personal income tax reform—the most comprehensive in a generation—and the winners are the hardworking Australian families the Labor Party has abandoned.

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to table Elaine's comments.

Leave not granted.

Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister outline to the House how the government's tax relief plan will enable working Australians to keep more of their money, including in my electorate of Dunkley? Is the Prime Minister aware of alternative approaches that seek to increase taxes?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. Today we have seen a massive win for hardworking Australian families. They will be able to keep more of the money they earn. It's their money: they earned it, and we should take no more of it than the government needs to deliver the essential services Australians rely on.

Because of the stronger economy that we are seeing right now, we have stronger government revenues and we are enabled to give tax relief to all Australians. We're able to guarantee essential services and infrastructure, defence capability, and health and education, and the government can live within its means, coming back into balance a year earlier. Everything depends on that stronger economy and ensuring that Australians have the incentive to get ahead, to realise their dreams, to aspire and to realise their aspirations. That is what the enterprise of our nation is all about. That is what drives Australia.

And what has the Labor Party done? It has sought to block this change and voted against us. It regards any tax relief as a giveaway because it thinks that everything Australians earn belongs to the government. What our tax reform does is ensure that middle-income Australians—over four million of them—from this next financial year, starting on 1 July, will be receiving $530 back in a tax offset, and many middle-income families will be getting over a thousand dollars back. But then, over the full extent of the reform, we get to the point where 94 per cent of Australians will never pay more than 32½ cents in the dollar for every additional dollar they earn. The Labor Party talks about fairness and a progressive tax system. Well, in 2024-25, those in the top bracket, which by then will start at $200,000, will be paying a larger share of personal income tax receipts than they do today.

This is about aspiration. These are the values the coalition stands for—that the Liberal and National parties stand for: the values of aspiration. They used to be the values of the Labor Party, but they have been abandoned by a Labor Party that has walked out and given up on the men and women it was founded to represent. What an abandonment of aspiring Australians! What an abandonment of Australian workers! This has been a week of shame for the Labor Party, abandoning the people that it was founded to represent.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is it fair that the Prime Minister teamed up with Senator Hanson to give themselves a $7,000 tax cut instead of supporting Labor's plan to give 10 million working Australians a tax cut of up to $928—

Mr Falinski interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition will pause. The member for Mackellar is warned. The Leader of the Opposition will begin his question again.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Prime Minister. How is it fair that the Prime Minister teamed up with Senator Hanson to give themselves a $7,000-a-year tax cut instead of supporting Labor's plan to give 10 million working Australians a tax cut every year of up to $928 a year, almost double the tax cut they're getting from the government? Why won't the Prime Minister do more to help working Australians instead of helping himself to a $7,000-a-year tax cut every year?

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

A stronger economy enables more Australians to get a job, it enables more Australians to start businesses and it enables more Australians to earn higher wages. Everything depends on a stronger economy and on providing the right incentives to ensure that as Australians work harder, work longer and work in more skilled jobs—

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sydney is warned.

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

that everything they do is incentivised so they can get ahead and realise their dreams.

That is what Labor used to be all about, and the abandonment by the Leader of the Opposition not only flies in the face of what Keating, Hawke, Wran and others said but also flies in the face of what he himself said. This is a leader who said in his maiden speech:

The old class war conflicts should finally be pronounced dead.

Hang on, I'll just check—yes, that was the member for Maribyrnong, absolutely.

The real conflict—

he said—

is between those who are stuck in a business-as-usual routine and those that pursue innovation, knowledge and creativity. Those are the drivers of economic growth around our world.

He said:

What I want to accomplish for working people is about aspiration …

Can this be true?

Can this be true? Is there an impersonator? Is this the same Leader of the Opposition, the same member for Maribyrnong?

Everything the Labor Party stood for and was founded on was about encouraging Australians to get ahead. That was their ideal. And our values of enterprise, investment, innovation—that's what we stand for. The aspirations of both sides of politics often coincided, but now we see this huge gulf. Labor is for less investment; we are for more investment. We are for a stronger economy; Labor is for a weaker economy. We are for lower taxes; Labor is for higher taxes—$70 billion more personal income tax. This is what this bloke is going to go to the election on. He is going to ask people to vote to pay $70 billion more personal income tax.

Dr Leigh interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fenner is warned!

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

That is what he is going to do. And he is going to do that—as all his colleagues will—from the privileged position of a taxpayer funded job here, treating with contempt the aspirations of hardworking Australians. (Time expired)

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on how the government's Personal Income Tax Plan will deliver tax relief to encourage and reward the aspiration of hardworking Australians? What are the consequences of not encouraging aspiration in this way?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. She is part of a team—the Turnbull government—that is getting things done. More jobs, a stronger economy and—once again, today—lower taxes. The Turnbull government is getting things done—$140 billion and more in tax relief for Australians out there working hard and paying tax. That is what has passed through the parliament today. I thank the members in the Senate and in this House who have ensured that Australians who work hard are the winners today as a result of the tax relief plan that has passed this parliament.

A registered nurse on $75,000 a year will have an extra $530 in their pocket from the 2018-19 income year onward and $3,740 in their pocket over the first seven years of this plan. She is one of 10 million Australians—and around 60,000 in the member's electorate of Capricornia—who will benefit from the plan. A workshop manager on $88,000 will have an extra $575 in their pocket from the next income year and over $4,000 over the first seven years of that plan. Low- and middle-income earners are our first priority; dealing with bracket creep moves from there, and then ensuring at the end of our plan a simpler tax system where 94 per cent of Australians do not face a marginal tax rate any greater than 32½c in the dollar.

That is a real plan dealing real problems. It is a plan that recognises and rewards aspiration. It's a plan that understands that what Australians earn is their money. That is a fundamental difference between those on this side of the House and the Labor Party. It is a plan that is not paid for by jacking up taxes on other Australians. The Labor Party want to put $200 billion more of tax on the Australian economy, and what we've learnt in this place today is that they want to put an extra $70 billion on the—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Shortland is warned.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

personal income tax of Australians in this country over the next decade. So they will go to the next election and say, 'Vote Labor and pay $70 billion more in personal income tax over the next 10 years.' What we have delivered today is $140 billion of tax relief. It's a plan that's driven by the economics of opportunity, not the politics of envy of the Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition. Today they tried to cut the tax plan in half. They tried to take a $140 billion plan and turn it into a $70 billion plan. Thankfully for the workers of Australia, the workers of Australia had the Liberal and the National parties to stand up for them here in this place and support good tax policy based on a strong plan. It's part of a plan for a stronger economy that is being delivered under the Turnbull government that those opposite could never, ever deliver.

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why did the Prime Minister team up with One Nation to give themselves a tax cut instead of supporting Labor's plan to give the 39,000 people in Braddon who earn less than $125,000 a tax cut of up to $928 a year, almost double the tax cut they will get from this government? Why won't the Prime Minister do more to help working Australians instead of telling them to get a better job and giving himself a tax cut?

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

The honourable member knows very well that Tasmania is enjoying stronger economic growth.

Ms Collins interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Franklin will not interject.

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

Tasmanians are seeing stronger economic growth, lower unemployment and better prospects than they've seen for many years. That's a result of a strong economic plan from our government here in Canberra and from Will Hodgman's government in Hobart. It is based on the hard work of the Tasmanians who want to work hard, invest, start businesses, get ahead, realise their dreams and respect their aspirations—and, may I say, regardless of their age. Everyone is entitled to have aspirations to realise their dreams, to get a better wage, to start a business. Everyone is entitled to aspire to that. The honourable member is disrespecting the aspirations and the opportunities of the people of Tasmania by attempting to stand in the way of our comprehensive personal income tax reform, because it, as part of our economic plan, is ensuring that the people in her state are seeing better times ahead and they're doing that because of aspiration. The very aspiration that mystifies her deputy leader is what is inspiring stronger economic growth in Tasmania, and it is what we are encouraging and enabling with our economic plan, with our income tax reform plan, with our reductions in company tax, with our investments in infrastructure. That is what is ensuring there are better times in Tasmania. The honourable member would be well aware that the people of Braddon are keenly aware that the risk to their prosperity is the Labor Party and its threat of higher taxes, fewer jobs, lower wages and less investment.