Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Democrat amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 4929:

(1)    Schedule 1, item 1, page 3 (table items 1 to 4), omit the table items, substitute:

(2)    Schedule 1, item 2, page 3 (table items 1 to 4), omit the table items, substitute:

We have before us sheet 4929, which is the first proposition I will be putting to the Senate. Later we may see sheet 4951, which is an alternative to sheet 4929. Obviously if the amendments on sheet 4929 pass, I will not move the amendments on sheet 4951, but I understand the numbers in the Senate, so I anticipate we will be moving onto sheet 4951 later on. I will speak to all the amendments.

I will briefly motivate these amendments. As is clear on the face of the amendments, the aim is to raise the tax-free threshold from its present $6,000 to $7,500. The reason the schedules are included is that part of the way of paying for that would be to keep the top tax rate where it is already legislated to be, which is at $125,000, and to keep the highest tax rate at 47 per cent rather than 45 per cent. The costings show that the total estimated cost of raising the tax-free threshold to $7,500 would be $8.5 billion over four years. By keeping the top rates where they are presently legislated to be we would save $5.05 billion. Therefore, the net cost would be $3.45 billion over four years, which is easily affordable in the context of the forward estimates. Those are the savings measures that are in there.

I would refer interested listeners and senators to my website where, under my tax section, there is an extensive paper comparing Australia’s tax-free threshold with OECD data, with suitable graphs and tables to excite those people who like that sort of thing. It is there in some detail. My website is www.andrewmurray.org.au