Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Payman, who, along with a number of other people on this side of the chamber, has devoted a lot of her life to supporting early childhood educators. Thank you for the work that you did in that space before coming to this chamber.

As we've made clear, the Albanese government's No. 1 priority is addressing inflation and cost-of-living pressures. We know that a lot of people are doing it tough through the global inflation crunch. The rising cost of living is putting increasing pressure on hardworking Australians right now.

It's particularly good that Senator McKenzie and her colleagues have finally decided to back in our plan to provide that cost-of-living relief. So thank you, Senator McKenzie, for agreeing to support our plan, because it has been crystal clear that every taxpayer needs and deserves a meaningful tax cut.

Labor's tax cuts are good for middle Australia, good for women, good for helping with cost-of-living pressures, good for labour supply and good for the economy. Labor's tax cuts ensure that every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut and more Australians will get a bigger tax cut. Labor's tax cuts guarantee that every working woman will get a tax cut. Labor's tax cuts mean that on average women will get a tax cut of $1,649 each year.

Labor's tax cuts ensure that early childhood educators will be better off than under Scott Morrison's plan, because Labor's tax cuts mean that an early childhood educator earning $46,000 a year will receive an $829 tax cut, far more than they would have received under the coalition's stage 3 tax cuts, and Labor's tax cuts mean that an early childhood teacher earning $69,000 a year will receive a tax cut of $1,404, real cost-of-living relief for the very people that serve our community, educate our children and probably care for a lot of the children of the people who are in this chamber. They will finally be getting the cost-of-living relief that they need, and it took a Labor government to do so.