Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's tax time again, and I am glad that those rejigged stage 3 tax cuts will finally start kicking in and giving some relief to low- and middle-income Australian families—but only just, I can assure you. I wonder if these families know that at least 100 Australians who earnt over $1 million in 2021-22 paid no tax at all. Analysis of the data by the Australia Institute and the ABC shows this cohort of rich taxpayers earnt on average $3.8 million each. This group of non-taxpaying high earners claimed deductions of $200,000 on average for managing their own tax affairs. Isn't that just disgusting? During COVID, the rich got a lot richer and the low-income Australians got a hell of a lot poorer. We like to think of ourselves as the land of the fair go, but what is fair about the richest Australians paying the least amount of tax in this country?

I've spent a lot of time on the ground in the last few weeks talking to Tasmanian families and I can tell you, my God, they are doing it tough. Tasmanian mums and dads are skipping meals to feed their kids, seniors are skipping meds because they can't afford them—they've already gone over their quota—and there are nearly 5,000 families on the housing waiting list in Tasmania alone. Is this the land of the fair go? Is it? Is this who we are? This government came to power promising to make Australia a fairer place. Of the three million people living in poverty in Australia right now 750,000 are children and 1.2 million are under the age of 24. UNICEF and ACOSS and many other organisations agree that the gap between the rich and the poor in Australia is only getting wider. The Labor Party likes to say they are the party that believes that there should be a level playing field for everyone, a fair go for all, but what are they really doing to close these tax loopholes? When will the Labor Party stop giving the rich Australians a leg up and start giving those who need it a fair go?