Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

So all of those senators over there have voted to give themselves a $7,000 tax cut. What we wanted to do—and we had the support of the majority of the Senate yesterday morning—was to proceed with the tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners but to not proceed with the tax cuts for higher income earners which are to come into place in 2024. All of the debate that we have seen and all of the procedural straitjackets that Senator Cormann has been engaging in have been because he doesn't want to debate what is unsustainable, and that is an argument that low- and middle-income earners' tax cuts should be held hostage to tax cuts for high-income earners in 2024.

Let's be clear on what Senator Hanson and others have done today. What she ought to know is that the tax cuts that she is now voting for by agreeing with this motion, agreeing with what's before the chamber, will ensure that the people of Wentworth do very well and the people of Longman do very badly. What you need to know is that in Longman the number of people who are earning over $200,000 is 703. Guess how many in Wentworth: over 10,000. Well done, Senator Hanson: you've delivered to Point Piper! Well done, Senator Hanson: you've delivered to Malcolm Turnbull's electorate! But bad luck for the burghers of Longman, because you have ensured that tax cuts which overwhelmingly benefit high-income earners, people earning over $200,000 a year—