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

Again, as I have previously indicated to you, we made the decision to keep the carbon tax compensation in place, in particular the increase of the income-free tax threshold to $18,200, on coming into government, which was, of course, a material tax cut for low-income earners. Senator Whish-Wilson is again misleading the Senate. This bill did go to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee. So, when Senator Whish-Wilson says that it did not go to the committee, that is wrong; it did go to the committee. The committee provided a recommendation to the Senate that the Senate should pass the bill—and I will quote from the committee's report, the committee that you say did not consider this bill, misleading the Senate. Overall, the committee found that the majority of submissions supported the income tax relief measures proposed in the bill:

… commenting that the … amendments are a step in the right direction to addressing the effects of bracket creep on the Australian economy.

Further, the committee commented:

As well as maintaining the progressivity of the tax system, the committee is confident that the bill will positively influence taxpayer decisions to work, save and invest by offering rewards for effort and creating better incentives to work. The committee is also confident that the bill will better align the tax system with the emerging challenges Australia's economy will face in the years to come.

Three point one million Australian workers will benefit from this tax cut. Not every Australian will benefit from this tax cut—that is true. We would like to be able to do more, but this is as much as we can do and we have specifically targeted the measure at Australians on average full-time wages.