Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A letter has been received from Senator Hume:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

That the Albanese Government has been happy to rule out tax hikes when politically convenient but uses weasel words when it's limbering up for more tax grabs from Australian households or businesses.

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government's term thus far is one that is littered with falsehoods, mistruths and broken promises, and weasel words that follow when those failures are finally called out. How does Labor mislead thee? Let me count the ways. Back in May 2022, immediately prior to the election, the then opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, was asked a very simple question: 'Does Labor commit to the current superannuation arrangements for self-funded retirees and other superannuants, and do you rule out any increase to super taxes and changes to caps?' In response, he told the Australian people: 'We have said that we have no intention to make superannuation changes.'

This was not simply a thought bubble from a man who wasn't across the detail. He was actually doubling down on what he had previously said many times—that there would be 'no changes to super'. And why wouldn't he say that? Let's face it: his shadow Assistant Treasurer, who was responsible for superannuation, had made the same commitment. He was asked what his planned changes for super were, and he said that his planned changes were more maintenance than architecture and that that was what was needed.

What was this maintenance? It was doubling the tax rate on superannuation for tens of thousands of Australians. That's a hell of a maintenance bill. This doubling of the tax rate is not just going to hit Australians who are in retirement now or who are about to enter the retirement phase—those who have been planning and relying on the consistency of Labor promises who are now left in the lurch. This is going to apply most punitively to young Australians who are now just entering the workforce, because setting that $3 million cap without indexation means that in today's dollars a 30-year-old will have a real cap of around $1 million. Labor's doubling of super taxes will capture around two million Australians under the age of 25 who are earning an average wage throughout their life. This is entirely intentional.

The next big mistruth of this government relates to franking credits. Prior to the election, Mr Albanese was asked about franking credits. He said very confidently, 'We're not touching those.' That was back in March 2022. What weasel words they were! Only months later, in October 2022, Labor handed down a budget with a sneaky new tax on franking credits. Labor's franking credit tax removes franking credits connected to capital raisings and share buybacks, and it will cost Australians around $550 million of additional tax in just four years—for investors and self-funded retirees, who rely on franking credits for their retirement.

We haven't even come to the most recent weasel words of the Labor government. Do you remember this one? 'My word is my bond. We said during the election campaign that we would maintain the position on stage 3 tax that had already been legislated.' That was the Prime Minister in July 2022. Fast forward to 2024, on 10 January, when the Prime Minister was asked if he could promise stage 3 would come into effect in July in full and he refused to do so. He instead said, 'We haven't changed our position. Nothing has changed. The government has exactly the same position.' The Prime Minister said in April 2022, 'No, our objective is not about raising taxes.' Right! What we see in practice is three new taxes that the government explicitly said prior to the election that it would not do.

Now, the question is: what is Labor turning its tax gaze to next? I have asked Minister Gallagher, the minister in here representing the Treasurer, about Labor's plans on negative gearing, and she has not given us a straight answer. When asked on live television, she said, 'We have no plans for that.' She was pushed again by the interviewer: 'That's not what I asked,' he said. 'Would you mind repeating, "There will be no changes to negative gearing under my government"?' But she couldn't do it. The best Minister Gallagher could do was say that there were no plans. There are those weasel words again!

Yet, last week, we found out that there are more than 1,000 documents in the Treasury classed as advice to Treasurer Jim Chalmers about changing negative gearing and capital gains tax arrangements. If you have no plans, why do you need advice? This is the question for the minister. We could go on with examples of broken promises and weasel words: cheaper energy—$275 off your energy bills, a number that the energy minister won't even utter now; cheaper mortgages—getting the cost of living under control. The truth is that this is a Labor government that will do and say absolutely anything to get elected but has no thoughts about keeping its words post election.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am more than happy to tell Senator Hume and the chamber exactly what our tax plan is. Our plan is that every single Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut on 1 July. That is our tax plan. Our plan is that 13.6 million Australians will get a tax cut on 1 July. That is our plan. Our plan is that 90 per cent of Australian taxpayers will get a bigger tax cut than what was on offer from those opposite. That is our tax plan. Our plan is that Australians will keep more of what they earn. That is our plan, and our plan is working. What we are seeing is that wages are moving at the fastest rate in over a decade. We've seen minimum wage workers be supported by our government to receive over $100 a week more in their pay packet.

Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What are real wages doing?

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under our government—thank you for asking that, Senator Hume. I will take that interjection. Under our government, real wages are growing. Real wages have been growing for three quarters under our government. Real wages are growing today, as you have just acknowledged, and I thank you for that, Senator Hume. That was the most honest thing that has been said by you in this chamber right now. Real wages are growing. Australians are keeping more of what they earn, and every single Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut under the Albanese Labor government. So I would like to thank Senator Hume for giving us the opportunity to talk about exactly how we are cutting taxes for working Australians and how working Australians will get to keep more of what they earn under our plan.

We are putting more money in the pockets of working Australians. That is what we are about. We are making much-needed and important tax reform. That is what we are about. From 1 July, every single Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut—all 13.6 million taxpayers. That is nurses, it's tradies, it's librarians, it's early childhood educators, it's aged-care workers, it's teachers—every one of those workers is getting a tax cut under our plan. They are all going to be keeping more of what they earn, because that is what we want—we want people to earn more, and we want people to keep more of what they earn. And the good news is that that is exactly what is happening. People are earning more, and people will be paying less tax under this government.

But we do know that the damage done by those opposite from their wasted decade in power lives on. Those opposite used low wages as a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture. It is sickening, really, to imagine that a group of people were sitting around the cabinet table and thinking it was a good idea to keep Australians' wages low as a deliberate design feature of their economy. They thought it was a good idea that Australians should have to work more for less.

As for Labor, we support working Australians. We know the value of a good wage. We know the value of a secure job. Since coming to government, we have consistently supported an increase to wages in this country—wages for minimum wage workers, wages for aged-care workers and wages for all Australians through our secure jobs and better pay legislation. Those opposite, the Liberals and the Nationals, stand for low wages and higher taxes. That is clear, because under their proposal 2.9 million taxpayers would not have benefited at all. There was not a single change to those people's tax, and those Australians will now be keeping more of what they earn under our cost-of-living tax cuts. For example, a nurse earning $76,000 will get a tax cut of more than $1,500 a year—more than double what they'd get under the coalition's plan.

So we thank Senator Hume for inviting us to talk about our economic plan. We thank Senator Hume for inviting us to talk about our tax plan, a plan under which every single Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut. When? On 1 July. How many Australians will get a tax cut? All 13.6 million of them. We thank you for inviting us to tell you our plan.

Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Home Ownership) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The strangest thing about this whole debate on tax is the absence of ambition. Just last night we heard Dr Leigh, who's apparently an assistant minister in the government, proclaiming the Labor Party's changes to the stage 3 tax cuts as a tax reform. To use an old-fashioned saying, I'd have to eat my hat if that is tax reform. If reinstating a tax bracket which has already been abolished by the parliament is tax reform, then my hat will disappear down my throat in obviously a painful sort of way.

There is a real lack of attention given to the major challenges facing the nation. We are a country which is very heavily reliant upon company and personal taxation—one of the highest in the OECD. One of the only reforms in the past few years that were worth noting at all was the changes to personal income tax during the last couple of parliaments. That's all now at an end, which is very sad because it's going to mean that more Australians will pay more tax over the medium to long term. Effectively, by reversing the stage 3 changes, the government has now locked in bracket creep on a permanent basis.

But, of course, this is also a debate about taxes that Labor would like to put in place. These taxes in relation to housing are a real prospect and a real risk to the Australian community. The reason that Labor is now having to countenance playing around with taxes on housing is because its housing policy has completely failed. It has sunk into the sand because its plan to build and supply more houses has failed. Chris Minns, the New South Wales Premier, laughs at the federal government here and says, 'We won't even build half the houses that Canberra has asked us to build.' So it's a big fail on supply. It's a big fail when it comes to the Housing Australia Future Fund, which is a boondoggle for Labor union mates. And, of course, underlying all of this is Labor's giving up on Australians owning their own house.

As we move to the next elections, the Australian people will have a very clear choice between a Labor Party that believes that big super funds and foreign fund managers should own the houses; the Greens party, which supports a government property developer, thereby giving up on the private economy; and the Liberal-National coalition, which believes that the people should be able to own Australian houses. For that to be realised there'll have to be an end to the demonisation of the construction building and property development sectors. We hear all the time from the Greens and the Labor Party that they're terrible people and can't be trusted to do anything. I'm not sure who the other parties think built modern Australia.

There is going to be an important role for private capital to support the houses of tomorrow—the houses we need to see for our children. That is a reality, so we need to get back to a position where the government of Australia is going to support more supply and follow through on those plans. In question time today we heard Senator Gallagher proudly boast that the government had a target for building houses. That's great. I've got targets for lots of things—some I meet and some I don't. This is a pretty important target, because the way to address the shortfall in the cities is through more density and more houses. That is the way to do it. But it also means we need to be creative with our solutions, which is why the Liberal Party has put forward the idea that people should be able to use their own money to purchase their own house using their own superannuation—if they so wish. What is wrong with giving people options?

I think, ultimately, the Labor Party now is looking at negative gearing and capital gains tax fiddles, but even if they did that it would only have an impact of between one and four per cent on the prices of dwellings in Australia, so it would be a very small thing—I'm so pleased that so many people could come and listen to this particular address! Thank you, Senator Rice!—it would only have a very small impact on overall pricing.

Ultimately, people have a very clear choice between the Liberals, who want the people to own the houses; the Greens, who want government to own the houses; and Labor, who wants big super and foreign fund managers to own houses.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Bragg. This matter of public importance will be continued later. Pursuant to order, the Senate shall now move to valedictory statements, and I call Senator Rice.