Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

when, in fact, there is barely a glimmer of sunlight about the thickness of a playing card between the two. That is the case around a range of policy areas: support for fossil fuels, delivery for big gaming, delivery for the big supermarket corporations and also, of course, tax policy in Australia, which is a significant part of the topic of this debate. Let's be very clear about how we find ourselves here today. Stages 1, 2 and 3 of the tax cuts were legislated even though Labor didn't support them. But they ended up voting for them because they were too weak to stand up to Mr Morrison, Mr Dutton and Mr Cormann. That's why stage 3 tax cuts for the top end of town were legislated in Australia.

Then the Labor Party came into government. They were very triumphant on the night, but it is worth noting that their vote went backwards by nearly three per cent, so it's hardly a ringing endorsement from the Australian people. Consistently they said that stage 3 was legislated and it was in. Then Labor quite rightly, in the view of the Greens, reframed the stage 3 tax cuts because economic conditions had changed. We agree with the Prime Minister that, when conditions change, so should government policy. We also point out that we should therefore talk about things like negative gearing and climate policy in the same context. But what Labor did was not dramatically recast the stage 3 tax cuts in such a way that it would make Australia's tax system more progressive. What the Labor Party did was make some reasonably minor changes that still will result in Australia's tax system being more regressive than it currently is as we stand here debating today prior to 1 July.

Now, because the Prime Minister has rightly said that, when conditions change, so should government policy, now is the time to talk about negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Now is the time to talk about the $200 billion in tax concessions that property investors are going to get over the next five years and now is the time to talk about the fact that they are using those concessions to outbid Australian renters and young Australians who are dreaming of owning their first home. (Time expired)