Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Cormann) to questions without notice asked by Senators Keneally and Chisholm today relating to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Plan) Bill 2018.

What we saw from those attempted answers by Senator Cormann was basically evidence of the protection racket that he is running for the crossbench. The reason he needs to do that is that they are not willing to come in here and defend themselves and the way they have voted on these tax cuts. They're unfunded. They're unfair. It is really disappointing in the behaviour of the crossbench over the last 24 hours that they have not been willing to defend themselves for the outrageous behaviour that we've seen in this chamber.

We saw Senator Georgiou show up for the last five minutes of question time and Senator Griff show up for the last five minutes. But, when they had the opportunity earlier today to defend themselves for the way they've voted in the last 24 hours, they were silent. We took the opportunity to ask Senator Cormann to confirm what we know about how unfair these tax cuts are and how unfunded they are, and he would not defend the unfairness and the long-term damage that they will do to the Australian economy. But it's worth focusing on the remarkable performance of the crossbench over the last 24 hours, particularly that of Senator Hanson and the Centre Alliance.

But Senator Hinch, the self-styled justice warrior, shouldn't escape his blame for this either. There wasn't much justice for those who were opposed to these tax cuts. He likes to say that he's for defending freedom and defending people's ability to speak their mind. Well, he didn't display that courtesy to us over the last 24 hours. He sat there and voted with the government at every opportunity we had. That was a shameful performance by Senator Hinch and one that we will absolutely hold him to account for.

What we saw from the Centre Alliance and from Senator Hanson was the crossbench shuffle. Over the last couple of weeks, they would say one thing and then they would say, 'Oh, maybe we're not in favour; maybe we are,' but when push came to shove they did exactly what the government wanted. I'd love to set up a poker game with Senator Hinch and Senator Hanson's team and the Centre Alliance next week, because they got absolutely played off a break, and they did everything that this government wanted them to do. It was an absolutely shameful performance.

We highlighted this in the chamber today during question time. We will absolutely back up Penny Wong, the Labor Senate leader; we will back up federal Labor leader Bill Shorten and the shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen; and we will absolutely fight these every day from now to the election, particularly in the Longman by-election and the other by-elections around the states as well.

What's important is that we go to the substance of it. I think it's really important that we understand in a crystal clear way what Senator Hanson and her team have signed up to. It was really alarming to hear what Senator Hanson said. I really don't think she fully comprehended the consequences of her decision in this chamber over the last 24 hours, when at a press conference she said: 'This is a great day.' Pauline Hanson was ecstatic in regard to her deal with the government. I think that just shows you how out of touch Senator Hanson and her team are about the consequences that this will have.

Let's be clear about what those are and the damage that it will do, particularly to those people that Senator Hanson purports to represent. We know that that's often just rhetoric on her part, but we actually see, with the decision that she's made in regard to this, the damage that it will do. Senator Hanson voted with the government to give herself a $7,000 a year tax cut. Senator Hanson supported the stage 3 income tax cuts, which go exclusively to the top 20 per cent of income earners, while 75 per cent get no benefit at all.

In regard to Longman—and this is topical; we know that there's a by-election imminent there—only 700 taxpayers in Longman will see the full benefit of Senator Hanson's decision to support stage 3, while 10,000 taxpayers in Wentworth will see the full benefit. Do you need a better example? Is there a more crystal clear example of how unfair what they voted for is? It is 700 people in Longman versus 10,000 in Wentworth. This is what they voted for. Senator Hanson and Senator Georgiou provided the two votes that the government needed. This is so unfair to the people of Longman. What a picture that makes about fairness: 700 people in Longman versus 10,000 in Wentworth. Also, to add to that, they voted against Labor's plan that would have almost doubled the tax cut for 63,000 taxpayers in Longman. So we see that, when it comes to Senator Hanson's priorities, they are: dealing with the government and abandoning those people who rely on her support the most.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sometimes I have my issues with the crossbench, but can I particularly congratulate the crossbench as a whole—with one exception, I might say—on the way they have withstood the typical union bullying of the Labor Party opposition on this particular matter. Labor Party senators all come from the unions, and they take as their natural right the ability to bully anyone who doesn't agree with them. I've watched from this position over the last week or so how Labor Party union bullies have tried to belt the crossbench into submission. I don't always agree with the crossbench. In fact, sometimes I have very strong disagreements with them, but I think the way the Labor Party has relentlessly attacked them simply because they have made their own decisions on what is best for Australia is appalling, and it is an indictment of the Labor Party and the typical union bullying tactics that the Labor Party continue to exhibit.

The previous speaker indicated that every day between now and the next election they were going to back up Senator Wong as the Labor Senate leader and Mr Shorten. I must say I'm pleased to hear that, because the conduct of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate yesterday was an absolute disgrace, and most Australians who had the misfortune to hear question time and the debate yesterday on television or on radio share that view. The position of the Labor Party and its leaders went down many, many points yesterday because of the disgraceful conduct of the Leader of the Opposition in challenging the President. So I hope the Labor Party continue to support the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, because she is doing us a great service at the next election, and similarly with Mr Shorten. I'm critical of Mr Shorten, but not as critical as perhaps I could be, because I don't want him to leave. I want him to be there at the next election because, as I've often said, Mr Shorten is the government's best weapon at the next election.

The previous speaker seems to be fixated on Senator Hanson. Why do members of the Labor Party, particularly male members of the Labor Party, always seem to pick on women, whether it is women ministers or women on the crossbench? I don't know why that is, but they seem fixated on Senator Hanson and indicating what she would receive as a tax cut. Of course, they didn't want to say that Senator Wong would receive a tax cut of some $12,000. Senator Wong can, if she wants to, not accept it. She can give it back. There is all this holier than thou stuff. Let's see her give it back. But I can guarantee you that, when the tax cuts come in, Senator Wong will be the first to put the $12,000 in her back pocket.

The substantive issue which I thought the speaker was going to speak on is something that the debate has been held on over several weeks now, both in the various chambers of the parliament and more broadly. The plan that has been adopted by the Senate and by the Parliament of Australia is a plan that means all Australians are better off. We are lucky to live in a country in which we're able to work, to aspire and to earn more and not be penalised for it. I talk about aspiration, but I know most of those opposite don't understand what the term 'aspiration' means, and that's demonstrated by one of their senior shadow ministers. So I won't go there and confuse the opposition about aspiration. I simply emphasise that our plan doesn't create winners and losers. It isn't designed to pit Australians against each other. It's a plan that all Australians will share in, and it's a plan that I'm pleased the Parliament of Australia has supported.

Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to participate in the take note debate on the answers provided by Minister Cormann to the questions I posed to him in question time regarding the Turnbull government's reliance on Senator Pauline Hanson's support for the Turnbull government's income tax scheme. Today we saw Senator Hanson, the self-proclaimed champion of the battlers of Queensland, vote once again with the Liberals, as she's done on every occasion this year, to give a great big tax cut to the battling investment bankers and barristers of Sydney and Melbourne.

The Liberal government's income tax scheme will see 60 per cent of the benefit go to the top 20 per cent of income earners. Let's be clear what that means. Only 700 taxpayers in Longman will benefit from stage 3 of the plan passed by Senator Pauline Hanson today, but 10,000 taxpayers in Wentworth will be $7,000 better off. In fact, Wentworth is ranked first in getting the most benefit from the Turnbull Liberal government's personal income tax scheme, but Longman is ranked 141 out of 150 electorates as to how it will benefit from the scheme that Senator Pauline Hanson voted for today.

In the answers given today by Senator Cormann he said that the government is grateful to Senator Hanson. I bet it is. I bet the government is very grateful for Senator Hanson. I bet the bankers of Wentworth are grateful. I bet the accountants, barristers and other high-income earners in Sydney and Melbourne are grateful, too. They are now the battlers that Senator Hanson represents. Senator Hanson had a choice. She could have voted to support Labor's plan to give every working Australian on less than $125,000 a tax cut of up to $928 a year, which is almost double the tax cut that the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the Liberals will provide to low- and middle-income families. Senator Hanson voted against Labor's plan to double the tax cut for 63,000 people in Longman. Today, Senator Hanson says that teaming up with the government to defeat Labor's plan to almost double the government's tax cut for low- and middle-income earners was 'the only fair thing to do'. When the people of Longman look at the choice Senator Hanson made today to vote against a bigger tax cut for 63,000 of them and to vote for a bigger tax cut for tens of thousands of high-income earners in Sydney and Melbourne, it's hard to see how they're going to say that that was the fair thing to do.

Senator Hanson said in this Senate last year during the debate on Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2017 that:

They do not understand the position or possibly the intelligence of One Nation. We are a party that stands alone to look at the benefits of the policy, the legislation, that is put before this parliament …

Well, let's take a look at how Senator Hanson and One Nation managed this debate. During the debate on the income tax scheme, Senator Hanson told the Senate that:

The tax cuts are going to be up to $200,000. I'm a very fortunate Australian to be earning more than $200,000. I am paying tax of 45c in the dollar on that. I'm not getting tax relief.

Senator Hanson appears to misunderstand how the Australian marginal tax system works. By voting for stage 3, she has voted for tax relief for herself and for every other high-income earner in Australia. Australians earning over $200,000 will get tax relief under stage 3 of the Liberal's personal income tax scheme. In fact, the government's own calculator does say that Senator Hanson will get some $7,000 a year when stage 3 is fully implemented.

Senator Hanson also seems to misunderstand stage 1 of the Liberal's tax plan, which comes in the form of a tax refund that could have been passed with the support of the majority of this chamber any day this week if she had just voted to split the bill. If she had forced the Liberals to split the bill, we could have had this done and dusted and low- and middle-income earners could have had their tax relief. In fact, there was no need to even get this bill passed by 30 June. Because it comes in the form of a tax refund, it could have been passed any time over the next 12 months. No, what Senator Hanson and One Nation did today was team up with the Liberal government in a political tactic to hold tax relief for low- and middle-income workers hostage to tax relief for high-income earners. They cast in their lot to give the biggest benefit to those on the highest incomes and they walked away from giving a bigger tax cut to low- and middle-income workers.

As I said, Senator Cormann has said today that the government are grateful for Senator Hanson, and I am sure they are. What she has done today is join with the Liberal philosophy to make Australia a less fair place and to make it a place that will give benefits to the top end, hollow out the middle class and push more people into the working poor.

Stirling Griff (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the answer given by Senator Cormann to a question without notice asked by Senator Keneally today relating to the tax package. I want to once again put the Centre Alliance's position on the personal income tax bill, in light of the childish attacks that have recently been levelled against us this place. As we have frequently made clear, we support tax cuts for low- and middle-income Australians, the people that very much need it most. That is why we put forward an amendment to that effect yesterday, and when Labor copied our amendment we supported it. It is also worth noting that over the last few days Labor was all about supporting only the first part of the package, yet yesterday it was happy to support the first and second parts of the package, which provided tax cuts to people earning anything up to $120,000—an $80 billion hike from their position of just a few days ago. Labor have no qualms whatsoever about flip-flopping if it suits their own aims.

We voted to pass the full package today because we would rather see low- and middle-income earners get that promised money in their pocket than watch the whole package be dumped, as the holier-than-thou Greens and, to an extent, Labor, were prepared to. Our hands were tied, and we were forced to choose the good over the perfect, but if Labor gets in after the next election we are more than happy to support any moves they make to unravel the third stage of the bill. If the economy suffers any setback between now and 2024, when the third phase kicks in, it is incumbent on any government, be it Labor or Liberal, to do the right thing and reverse the high-end cuts.

Centre Alliance has put hardworking Australians above petty politics. The bill has been passed, and Labor and the Greens need to stop pretending this is all about giving money to millionaires. They should recognise that in an environment where wages are stagnant and living costs are going up the majority of people want and need a tax cut. Do the Greens and Labor—and Senator Storer, for that matter—really think that low- and middle-income Australians are going to be grateful that they attempted to deny hardworking Australians hundreds of extra dollars in their pay packet? My final message to them is: stop playing politics and accept reality—that is, despite you, low- and middle-income earners can now enjoy the benefit of extra money in their pockets, which could help offset their living expenses, be put towards themselves or their families and be put to good use in their community. A reminder to Labor: should you become the government in the next one or two elections, we will definitely back any bid you have to unravel the rest of the package, but for now we're not prepared to stand in the way of tax cuts that the majority of ordinary Australians want and will benefit from in this coming financial year.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today will undoubtedly be the day that Senator Pauline Hanson is remembered once and for all for having come to this parliament not to stand up for battlers but to stand up for billionaires. Everything that Senator Hanson has been saying over the last two years about caring for battlers has been fully exposed today in her deciding to vote yet again with the Turnbull government to advantage high-income earners at the expense of low- and middle-income earners. Let there be no doubt that what Senator Hanson has done today is to yet again sign up and give the government support, another deal with the government, this time to lock in a tax cut that will cost the Australian budget $144 billion, most of which is going to go to high-income earners, particularly in electorates, like the Prime Minister's own, in the wealthy suburbs of Sydney. There is not very much in this for battlers whatsoever. Think about that: $144 billion. If the battlers Senator Hanson says she cares about could make a choice about where that $144 billion of taxpayers' money would be spent, does anyone seriously think that they would say, 'Pauline, what we want you to do is go down to Canberra and give Malcolm Turnbull's constituents in Point Piper on the Sydney Harbour a big tax cut'? Is that seriously what anyone thinks they would say?

I have actually spent a lot of time in places like Longman and Central Queensland—places that do have higher levels of support for Senator Hanson's party. People there are saying they want money spent on their health, on their hospitals, on their kids' education, on increasing pension levels and on apprenticeships and training. You don't very often run into someone in Rockhampton, Mount Morgan, Sarina or any of those towns in Central Queensland that Senator Hanson says that she cares about who are actually saying: 'Please, take money off me. Take money out of my hospitals, and can you please give that money to all the stockbrokers in Mr Turnbull's electorate? That's who really needs a leg-up.' No-one ever says that in Central Queensland. No-one ever says that in Longman. I doubt that anyone in any of those areas has ever said that to Senator Hanson.

So why is it that yet again she has come down here to parliament today and voted with the Liberals, voted with Mr Turnbull, to deliver these massive tax cuts to high-income earners, including herself—because, of course, one of the results of this is that Senator Hanson personally will get a $7,000 tax cut as a result of what was passed here today? None of the battlers in Longman, Central Queensland or anywhere else will be getting tax cuts anywhere near that size. In fact, they would have got bigger tax cuts had Senator Hanson been prepared to vote for Labor's tax cuts that we proposed and which were heavily targeted towards low- and middle-income earners. But no. Senator Hanson was too intent on maintaining her 100 per cent voting record this year with the Liberal Party and with Mr Turnbull. One hundred per cent of the time this year Senator Hanson has voted with the Liberals. Every single time there has been a bill put before the parliament by this government she's had a bit of a chat with them and sort of said, 'I'm not so sure,' but eventually does a deal with them and always signs up with them. This time it's going to cost taxpayers $144 billion.

Of course, she's not the only person who has grossly let down her constituents in coming to vote for these tax cuts today. The National Party also just have to hang their heads in shame. It's embarrassing watching the Liberal Party play the National Party time after time after time. We've been talking all week about the fact that these tax cuts will deliver the biggest benefit to the wealthiest electorates in the country, almost all of which are held by the Liberal Party, and people who will benefit least are in the poorest electorates in the country, and they are overwhelmingly represented by National Party MPs. Electorates in Queensland like Hinkler, Capricornia, Dawson and Flynn are held by National Party-aligned MPs who have come down to Canberra. They yet again toddled along and said: 'Malcolm Turnbull, what have I got to do today? Oh, your people need a tax cut? Okay. How can I help you do that? That's by ripping off my own people and cutting funding to my own hospitals, my own schools and my own TAFEs.' That's what these National Party MPs keep doing. It is incredibly embarrassing to see them sell out their own constituents and roll over time and time again for Malcolm Turnbull. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.