Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In recent days we've seen an opposition determined to huff and to puff and to blow a policy down—until they actually picked it up and read it. When they picked it up and read it, they liked it, because it's a better economic policy. They picked it up and read it and liked it because it's better for our economy. They picked it up, read it and liked it because it's better for Australian taxpayers, because our Prime Minister got it right; former Prime Minister Morrison got it wrong.

Our policy is right, for all the 13.6 million taxpayers. It's especially right for 11.5 million Australians who will get a bigger tax cut under our government's policy than they would have under the previous government. It's better for 90 per cent of Australian women—5.9 million women who will get a bigger tax cut under Labor's new tax plan, and 98 per cent of younger Australians as well. It is a policy valued and applauded by experts, valued and applauded by economists, because it's better for Australian taxpayers; it's better for our economy. It's better for my community in South Australia, where people are under pressure and where people are telling me they're doing it really tough.

Those people welcome a tax cut. Those people on lower and middle incomes, who got nothing under the opposition's plan, now get a bigger tax cut under ours. They get something under ours, because finally they've got a government that is concerned about the pressures they're under and determined to actually do something for low- and middle-income earners. This is what the Australian people expected of us when they elected us. This is the purpose of us; this is what we're for—to be trusted to do the right thing by the Australian people at the right time.

Your policy is not the right policy for this time. Our policy is. That is why it's so clear. When you picked it up and read it, despite Ms Ley in the other place saying she'll absolutely roll it back—a clever thing to do before you've actually read something!—you've now read it, and you've come onboard, because it's a better policy, it's a better economic plan, it's better for people in my community of South Australia and it's better for 11.5 million Australians who will get a bigger tax cut compared with what they would have got under the Morrison government's plan. That's 84 per cent of taxpayers in this country. Average income earners will get a tax cut of $29 a week, more than double what they would have got under the previous government's plan. A person on a median taxable income, of around $68,000, gets a tax cut of $1,379—$804 more than they would have under the previous government. That is the right thing to do for people in my community. That is the right thing to do for people on average incomes. That is the right thing to do for low- and middle-income earners in this country. The Australian people can trust us to make the right decision at the right time for those people who need their government to step up and help out when times are tough.

For days and days we listened to the huffing and the puffing from the opposition, determined to hate something they hadn't read. They were determined to stick by a policy written in a different economic time; built and written for the few and not for all. They were determined to stick with it, claiming they were going to roll our policy back, complaining, before they'd read it, that the sky would fall down—and then you pick it up and you read it, and it is so clear that this is the right thing to do, and I am proud to stick by it.

Our government, through this measure, is taking action on the cost of living. This builds upon everything we're doing around cheaper medicines, fee-free TAFE, cheaper child care—all the sorts of things that you turned your nose up at when we brought them into this place. Our government can be trusted to do the right thing for the Australian people. The right thing at the moment is a bigger tax cut, which helps them with the cost-of-living pressures that we know they are under. This is the right policy. It's the right economic plan. It's good for our country. It's good for 11.5 million people who will benefit more under it than they would have if the opposition were still on this side of the chamber in government. I am proud of that, and I am proud to be part of a government delivering for low- and middle-income Australians at a time when they need it.