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

I thank Senator Payman, who, as well as being a highly effective senator, is a young senator and a recently married senator. So congratulations, Senator Payman, on your recent marriage. We're all very happy for you.

The Albanese government is delivering for young Australians, building on the first budget surplus in 15 years to responsibly ease cost-of-living pressures without adding to inflation. Because of our policies, Australians are earning more, with real wages increasing, and keeping more of what they earn thanks to Labor's cost-of-living tax cuts. That includes more than three million Australians aged between 18 and 29 who will directly benefit from our tax cuts. In fact, with Labor's tax cuts now having passed the Senate, 98 per cent of young Australians will now get a bigger tax cut than they would have had under the plan put forward by the opposition.

Last year, we undertook nationwide consultation with young Australians on the issues that matter most to them. We ran 58 consultations, reaching thousands of young people across our communities. This consultation reaffirmed that the issue of cost of living is front of mind for young people right now. We are responding decisively to what we have heard to ease the pressure facing young working Australians. The 1.5 million young taxpayers between the ages of 18 and 24 will now receive an average tax cut of $1,007 a year under Labor's tax plan. A further 1.6 million taxpayers aged 25 to 29 will receive an average tax cut of $1,573 a year. These tax cuts are good for young people, they are good for Middle Australia, they're good for the economy and they're very different to what we saw on offer from the opposition. Unlike the former government, we are listening to young Australians and we're responding swiftly to what they are telling us is most important to them. We're investing in housing, we've lifted rent assistance, we're lifting wages and now we're delivering tax cuts as well. (Time expired)