Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Kemp for his very serious question and his ongoing interest in the welfare of all Australians. As Senator Kemp has said, there was a very interesting Bureau of Statistics report released recently which the Australian newspaper, to its credit, summarised on its front page today. It is interesting because, contrary to the rhetoric we hear often from the Labor Party and the trade union movement, it is this Liberal and National Party government that best looks after low- and middle-income families in this country.

What the figures in the ABS report show is that the benefits of the good economic management Australia has had for 11 years are flowing through to all Australians. The best welfare policy that any government can have is to put people into jobs. With our industrial relations reforms, we now have an extraordinarily low unemployment rate of just 4.2 per cent. On top of that, our very well designed tax and welfare policies are ensuring that Australian families get the support they deserve.

What the ABS figures do is calculate the value to families of both financial assistance through things like FTB and pensions and non-financial assistance such as health and education support from the Australian government. The figures show that low- and middle-income families are the big beneficiaries of our tax benefit payments and the cuts we continue to deliver in income tax. The average family pays around $360 in tax each week but receives $375 back from the government in a range of ways. In other words, the average family is not paying any net tax at all; it is receiving $15 net a week from the government. In fact, only the top 40 per cent of households pay any net tax; 60 per cent of households pay no net tax at all. The ABS survey uses data from 2003-04 showing that in the five years up to then real incomes rose by 8.9 per cent and the value of government services rose by an additional 7.2 per cent. In that time, taxes, including the GST, only rose 2.7 per cent. So Australian families are getting further ahead under our government. Since 2003-04, the government, of course, has continued to cut income tax, increase childcare benefits, cut superannuation taxes and further reform welfare. I think if you were to do this survey today, just three years later, the picture would be even better.

A part of the ABS survey not reported in the Australian was very interesting data on income equality. Of course, the usual refrain from the Labor Party and its fellow travellers is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer under our government. The ABS data confirms that that is a nonsense. All sectors of society are getting ahead under our government. Indeed, income inequality has decreased under our government. Appendix 5 of the survey shows the distribution of income across sectors of society. It shows that between 1998 and 2003 the shares of national income received by the bottom quintile, the next bottom quintile and the middle quintile of households have all increased. Their share of national income has increased for those low- and middle-income quintiles. The income share of the top 40 per cent has actually decreased under our government.

The Labor Party of way back, of old, I think used to be able to claim that it was the one that represented the battlers of Australia. It gave up that tag a very long time ago when it got captured by the union bosses, 80 per cent of them sitting over there, and also by the green extremists, bringing people like Peter Garrett into the parliament. It is a captured party. It is this side of politics that can claim to act for all Australians. The ABS survey demonstrates that it is the Liberal and National parties who are looking after ordinary Australians.