Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Stephens for giving me the opportunity to speak about tax reform, because this is a very important part of this government's priorities. We have made changes to the tax system to better reward effort and to encourage people to participate: three rounds of personal tax cuts worth some $47 billion. Someone earning $50,000 now pays $1,750 less tax than they did under the Howard government. And we on this side are building on this reform through our plans to triple the tax-free threshold in the coming years. Tripling of the tax-free threshold means a tax cut for every Australian earning under $80,000 a year—a tax cut opposed by those opposite.

The Liberal Party's priorities are clear. They want to preserve the profits of wealthy miners. They want to argue against any taxation on wealthy miners but they want to oppose tax cuts for working Australians, families and small business. (Time expired)