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

The government has an opportunity today in question time to tell the Australian people how they'd pay for stage 3 of their tax package. If they want to commit $95 billion five years out, they need to come clean on what services and programs they'll cut in the budget to make room for it.

Stage 3 comes with a $95 billion price tag, and by the end of the decade it will cost almost $20 billion every year. That's roughly what we're spending on aged care or public hospitals this year and more than what we'll spend on the NDIS. It's roughly twice as much as we'll spend on Newstart or carers and child care this year.

Before the election, the Grattan Institute sounded the alarm on $40 billion of secret cuts baked into the budget, which Labor remains very concerned about. Those opposite won't tell us where these cuts would fall and on what programs. And if the government's budget forecasts underperform, this is going to mean even more debt or more cuts to pay for this stage 3, a point made by respected economics commentator Michael Janda today, when he said:

Tax cuts risk service cuts or budget deficits …

It's irresponsible to lock in $95 billion of spending five years out.

This mob hasn't got the economy right for six years, and now they want to pretend that they know what the economy and the budget will look like in 2024. They shouldn't have held tax cuts this week to tax cuts in five years time.