Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's one thing for sure that we know about the Liberals, and that is that they will make every worker in the Blue Mountains, the Hawkesbury and Nepean pay more tax. I'm not saying this just because they voted against our two rounds of top-up tax cuts, which they did yesterday, but I say they want every one of the more than 67,000 workers in Macquarie to pay more tax because today the shadow Treasurer admitted the Liberals would repeal the tax cuts that we passed yesterday if they won the election—tax cuts that flow to every single worker this year and next and beyond. They are permanent tax cuts that, when combined with our tax cuts that came into effect in July last year, lift thresholds and reduce the lowest tax level from 19c on the dollar to 14c—the lowest it has been in about 50 years.

Our two tax cuts that are already law and let every worker keep more of their hard-earned money will disappear under the Liberals and Nationals. They want to wipe them out. We know our extra tax cuts are a modest top-up for people, but we think every little bit helps. What we know today is that the Liberals and Nationals don't care about tax cuts. They stand for higher taxes so Australians will earn less and keep less of what they earn.