Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. What I find odd is that those opposite, those Liberals, are hanging on to an outdated threshold without turning their minds to how they can provide relief for working families. Really, there are probably only three reasons that could descend upon them. The first option could be that those opposite, those Liberals, might have a simple justification for sticking to their outmoded position on this issue, and that could be a scientific justification. They may say that the original thresholds are there, they should not cavil with them or change them and they should leave them fixed. That is one option that those opposite could have taken. I remind senators of what former Minister Wooldridge said when he finally came clean about how those thresholds were set. I wonder whether or not that could be a real scientific justification, because the former minister said, ‘I think the numbers in the end were negotiated with Senator Harradine over a bottle of Jameson Whiskey late at night.’ I really think that puts paid to the scientific justification for it.

Another option of course could be that the original thresholds were set in such a way that they would somehow magically become relevant in 10 years time, even though they were not relevant to begin with. Dr Wooldridge had something to say on that matter as well. What he said was: ‘We were happy to successfully get through the 12 months let alone worry about a problem in 10 years time or more’—so much for the magic trick about that. Those two options were not really there.

Option three—let us be fair about this—is that they may be so convinced that $50,000 is a high income that they think people earning $50,000 just do not deserve a tax cut. That would be a sad and sorry day if they thought that was the case. When you look at the remarks of Senator Birmingham with respect to this, Senator Birmingham conceded that $50,000 was not a high salary. And it certainly is not a high salary when you look at it. (Time expired)