Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Madigan for that question and I appreciate and the government appreciates his genuine interest in the welfare of families. In this budget we have asked everyone to contribute to build Australia, to create opportunity and to make sure that we are back on a sustainable footing. We understand that some of the decisions we have had to make are difficult decisions. We understand that people across Australia will not universally be excited about the contribution they are being asked to make. But what I would say to you is that our objective and our focus has been on making sure that welfare support for families is targeted at those most in need.

In relation to the reference to somebody on $190,000, it is true that in the budget we are imposing a temporary budget repair levy. We could call it the Swan-Wong budget mess repair levy but we are calling it the budget repair levy, which is effectively a temporary increase by two per cent in the top marginal tax rate. Senator Madigan mentions how much somebody on $190,000 would pay in tax. After we have imposed that levy, somebody earning $190,000 per annum will be paying $60,197 in tax. So the point here is that we are very conscious of the fact that higher income earners already do a lot of the heavy lifting. In an absolute effort and commitment to ensure that we spread the additional effort required to fix the mess that Labor left behind as fairly and equitably as possible, we have ensured that there are also measures in this budget that require a special effort from higher income earners that comes on top of a very substantial effort they are already required to make. (Time expired)