Stirling Griff (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Relief So Working Australians Keep More Of Their Money) Bill, is all about giving the economy the boost it very much needs, and recognising that the 10 million Australian workers deserve a financial break. The Reserve Bank's decision this week to cut interest rates to an historic low of one per cent shows just how sluggish our economy is. The Reserve Bank's aim is to boost spending, which ultimately helps grow jobs, to avoid further stagnation. Putting up to $1,080 in the pockets of those earning up to $90,000, as the immediate stage of tax cuts does, will also help invigorate spending.

Stage 2 of the tax cuts will come into effect from July 2022, and it'll lift the income threshold for people on the 19 per cent tax bracket from $41,000 to $45,000, which, under our progressive tax system, will put a little bit extra into the pockets of most taxpayers. It will also slightly lift the low-income tax offset amount, and these changes will be welcomed by low- to middle-income earners in particular and are worthy of backing, even if they are three years away.

We are less enthusiastic about stage 3 of the tax cuts, which doesn't come into effect until July 2024. No-one can say with certainty what the economy will be like in 2024 and beyond, although I note the government is at this stage predicting a surplus in the years leading up to it. If those surpluses disappear, any future government worth its salt will have an opportunity to modify stage 3, if it needs to be modified, before the flattened tax brackets come into effect and potentially eat into government revenue. Interestingly, this is an option that Labor has left open, which I believe is the fiscally responsible thing to do.

We see that Labor is intent on introducing amendments to the bill, but this would be a fruitless exercise given that the government has steadfastly refused to entertain any changes. We saw this in the last parliament when the Senate sought to amend the Treasury Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Plan) Bill 2018, which was passed in June last year. We tested the government's resolve, but it rejected the amendments and handballed the bill back to the Senate to pass it unchanged. An amended bill will not get through the lower house. Ping-ponging this bill between chambers is totally pointless. What is more important is getting these tax cuts through to Australians who need them and to give the economy the stimulus it very desperately needs.

I note that Senator Whish-Wilson also has an amendment that will lift the starting amount for the low-income tax offset to $1,080. I actually think that that is a good idea. It will do what we need to do, which is to put more stimulus into the economy and more into the hands of those who need it most. But, again, this proposition will be rejected by the government and has no prospect of success today.

Of equal importance to us is that money given in one hand isn't taken away by the other. It's important for us that government implements a plan to deal with ever-rising energy costs, which dramatically impact the public and businesses. To us, it's mainly about gas—which is something we have a lot of in this building!—and about gas being available and correctly priced so that industry can be competitive and electricity generation can be more economical. Australia is the largest producer of gas in the world, but we are currently paying three to four times what we used to pay for gas before we started heavily exporting it in 2014-15. Just five years ago, we paid $3 to $4 a gigajoule for domestic gas. Our prices hit a crazy $21 in 2017. They have since come down, but we are still paying anywhere in the region of $8 to $12 per gigajoule. That's a crazy situation that smacks of cartel-like activity, in my view.

Reforms we have discussed with government, in relation to the gas market, will be developed further over the coming weeks and months. Those reforms cover ways to enhance the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, which was negotiated by Centre Alliance—then NXT—back in 2017. That deals with the amount of gas available to the domestic market through to providing greater transparency on wholesale pricing and more. The likely policy package will be a combination of short-term and long-term measures that will ensure energy security and lower costs for businesses and industry. It will significantly reduce the cost of electricity generation.

This is a very important bill. It will boost the economy and give 10 million Australian workers a welcome financial boost, something that we are very happy to support today.