Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to rise in this place to speak against this resolution. The first point we need to note is that there are millions of Australians who are going to benefit from the stage 3 tax cuts. This notion that it's just the billionaires at the top end of town who are going to benefit from the stage 3 tax cuts is simply false.

Let me give you some examples. A hairdresser earning $60,000 a year will benefit by $400 every year from the stage 3 tax cuts. A teacher earning $70,000 a year will benefit by $620 each year from these tax cuts. An executive assistant earning $80,000 a year will benefit by $900 each year from these tax cuts. A scientist earning $90,000 a year will benefit by $1,120 each year from the tax cuts. A qualified diesel mechanic earning $100,000 a year would lose more than $1,370 a year if this Greens resolution were accepted. These are ordinary, hardworking Australians who are benefiting from these stage 3 tax cuts.

The fact of the matter is that in Australia we have a progressive income tax system, as we should have. The more you earn, the more tax you should pay—absolutely. Let me just give you an insight with respect to how progressive our tax system is. Someone earning $200,000 a year pays eight times more tax than someone earning $50,000 a year. That's appropriate. That's a progressive tax system. Sixty per cent of the personal income tax received by the government is provided by the top 20 per cent of earners. Again, that's a progressive income tax system, as it should be. In fact, the top five per cent of earners contribute 33 per cent of the personal income tax receipts of the federal government. Again, that is a progressive tax system. When you have seven per cent or eight per cent inflation, you need to move the tax thresholds, or else everyone—the hairdresser, the teacher, the executive assistant, the research scientist, the qualified diesel mechanic—will be moving into higher tax thresholds. You have to adjust the tax thresholds. That makes basic common sense.

The other point I want to make about this—this is an important point—is that the government went to the last election with a promise that they would stay true to the stage 3 tax cuts which I voted for in this place before the last federal election. The government made that promise. The Greens, through this resolution, are asking the government to break their promise. Where's the integrity in that? The government, at the last election, went to the people and got a mandate, which I acknowledge and respect, on the basis they would deliver those stage 3 tax cuts. The Greens now come into this place and put a resolution that the government should break their promise to the Australian people. Is that integrity? Where's the integrity in that? The same lack of integrity was seen before the last federal election, when the Greens said their plan was fully costed and fully funded. That's what they said to voters in my home state of Queensland—that their plan was fully funded and costed. That's what they said.

Do you know what was released after the last federal election? The Parliamentary Budget Office, which monitors election commitments, did a study on the Greens' promises before the last federal election. Were they fully funded and costed? No. And you don't have to take my word for it that the Greens misled the people of Queensland. The Parliamentary Budget Office, in their analysis of the Greens' election commitments—this isn't Senator Scarr; this is the Parliamentary Budget Office—found that the introduction of Greens' policies, which were supposedly fully funded and costed, would result in the headline cash balance in the budget deteriorating by $112 billion. The Greens said—and the Greens don't like hearing about their broken promise and how they misled the people of Queensland—their policies were fully funded and costed, but the Parliamentary Budget Office, here in writing, say the Greens' policies would lead to a deterioration of the cash balance in the budget by $112 billion. That's a broken promise.