Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on the importance of encouraging and rewarding aspiration through the government's personal income tax cuts? Is the Treasurer aware of any alternative views that would undermine aspiration?

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

I thank the member for Moore for his question. This year's budget was a plan for a stronger economy, and that plan is working. More than a million jobs have been created since we were first elected. We had record jobs growth last year. Economic growth through the year has been 3.1 per cent and we are back up on top of all advanced economies in the world today. A key part of that plan for a stronger economy, which is working and which we need to stick to, is lower taxes—lower taxes to ensure businesses are more competitive and lower taxes to ensure that Australians who go to work today and every day and pay their taxes have the incentive to keep going and doing that.

Our plan for personal taxes is that they be lower, that they be fairer and that they be simpler. Now that is legislated. It has been legislated by this parliament so all Australians who are working and paying taxes today and in the future can go into this next decade with a plan for a stronger economy and also where they'll know that they'll be paying less tax than they otherwise would have been. What that says to families and people who are going out there and working hard is that they can plan for their future with confidence. We have laid out a long-term plan so they know where we as a government are going. We have the backing of this parliament to ensure that that plan is in place so they have the incentive, they have the reward and they have the opportunity to go and realise those plans of theirs. People who have plans have aspirations. That's what they have. They have aspirations for themselves and for their families, and they have those plans.

What we have done by legislating our personal tax plan is ensure they now can give effect to their aspiration, can set themselves on that course and can have that encouragement. That plan deals firstly with lower- and middle-income earners. That plan then deals with bracket creep. That plan deals with a simpler tax system which means that 94 per cent of Australians will not pay a marginal tax rate greater than 32½c in the dollar. If we had not legislated that, that figure would have been 63 per cent. That means a paramedic today working and earning around $80,000 not only will get $530 back on their tax refund but will get $3,740 more over the next seven years. Importantly, that paramedic will never face a marginal tax rate of 32½c or more. A 32½c rate will be as much as they will pay under the plan we've legislated, but not under the plan of those opposite. Under the Labor Party that paramedic will face a 37c tax rate. They will pay higher taxes. The Leader of the Opposition is telling Australians that he wants $70 billion of higher taxes. His message is: 'Vote Labor; pay more tax.' That's not the message of this government.