Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Labor has moved a number of amendments tonight to reflect the position that we've taken on this tax bill. Those amendments, unfortunately, have not won the support of this chamber, despite the fact that they are all responsible and sensible changes to ensure that the economy gets a boost now and that every Australian worker gets a tax cut but that this chamber and the parliament aren't asked to support $95 billion worth of expenditure in five years time without knowing what the budget or the economy will look like at that time.

However, our priority, through the debate, has always been to get more money into the hands of more workers sooner—and to boost the economy, which is certainly struggling under this Liberal government. We took bigger, fairer tax cuts to the election for people on low and middle incomes, and, after the election, we proposed amendments which were all about passing the first two stages, bringing forward parts of stage 2 but removing stage 3 from the bill. We fought hard for these amendments. We fought hard for these amendments in the House and we have fought hard for them in the Senate. We have lobbied the government and we have lobbied the crossbench. But, ultimately, we have not won the support for these amendments to pass tonight.

Today, this afternoon, for the second time, the government voted against their own tax cuts being delivered sooner, and, by doing so, they have refused a tax cut for every worker in Australia this parliamentary term. They have said: 'We don't care about you. We want you to wait three years or five years down the track.'

When it became impossible to get everything we wanted, we did have to prioritise what matters most. We wanted to make sure that Australians would receive their tax cut now and that those benefits that will come from the first stage start flowing through the economy and that they aren't further delayed. Of course, the first promise broken by this government was that these tax cuts would be in place by 1 July. But we believe they shouldn't be delayed any further.

The government's highest priority was to commit to a $95 billion tax cut in five years time without revealing what they will cut to pay for it or knowing what the budget and the economy will look like at that point, and we had the finance minister accept that they are reducing government spending in the medium term—