|
representatives vote 2018-05-23#3
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2018-05-30 15:58:02
|
Title
Bills — Treasury Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Plan) Bill 2018; Consideration in Detail- Treasury Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Plan) Bill 2018 - Consideration in Detail - Labor's personal income tax cuts
Description
<p class="speaker">Chris Bowen</p><p>by leave—I move opposition amendments (8) to (11) together:</p><p class="italic">(8) Schedule 1, item 1, page 4 (line 20) to page 5 (line 2), omit subsection 61-107(1), substitute:</p>- The majority voted against [amendments (8) to (11)](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2018-05-23.112.1) moved by Labor MP [Chris Bowen](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/mcmahon/chris_bowen), which means they failed.
- These amendments were related to the Labor Party's policy for "bigger and better personal income tax cuts" from 1 July 2019.
- ### What does this bill do?
- The [bill was introduced to](http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:legislation/billhome/r6111):
- * *introduce a low and middle income tax offset to reduce the tax payable by low and middle income earners that are Australian residents in the 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years;*
- * *merge the low and middle income offset and the current low income tax offset into a new low income tax offset from the 2022-23 financial year; and*
- * *progressively increase the income tax rate thresholds in the 2018-19, 2022-23 and 2024-25 financial years.*
<p class="italic"> <i>General rule—2018</i> <i>-2019 income year</i></p><p class="italic">(1) The amount of your *tax offset for the 2018-19 income year is set out in the following table in respect of the following income (your <i>relevant income</i>):</p><p class="italic">(a) if you are an individual—your taxable income for the income year;</p><p class="italic">(b) if you are a trustee—the amount of the share of *net income referred to in subsection 61-105(2).</p><p class="italic">(9) Schedule 1, item 1, page 5 (after line 2), after subsection 61-107(1), insert:</p><p class="italic"> <i>General rule—2019</i> <i>-20 income year and later income years</i></p><p class="italic">(1A) The amount of your *tax offset for the 2019-20 income year or a later income year is set out in the following table in respect of the following income (your <i>relevant income</i>):</p><p class="italic">(a) if you are an individual—your taxable income for the income year;</p><p class="italic">(b) if you are a trustee—the amount of the share of *net income referred to in subsection 61-105(2).</p><p class="italic">(10) Schedule 1, item 1, page 5 (line 4), omit "subsection (1)", substitute "subsections (1) and (1A)".</p><p class="italic">(11) Schedule 1, item 1, page 5 (line 23), omit "subsection (1)", substitute "subsections (1) and (1A)".</p><p>This is an opportunity for every member of the House to vote for bigger tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners. We've heard a lot of rhetoric in this debate about one side of the House being the party of lower tax. Well, now they can vote for lower tax. The Leader of the Opposition announced in his budget reply that Labor would deliver bigger and better personal income tax cuts on 1 July 2019. You can imagine, around the country, people thinking, 'Well, that's a good idea.' But you could see the blood drain out of the faces of honourable members opposite, who thought, 'There goes our tax scare campaign.' 'It's a little inconvenient and problematic for our scare campaign,' said the government, 'that the Labor Party now has better and bigger personal income tax cuts for Australians earning up to $125,000 a year.'</p><p>A teacher on $65,000 a year will receive a tax cut of $928 under the Labor Party. A couple earning $90,000 and $50,000 respectively will receive a tax cut of $1,855 a year. Will we see this so-called party of lower taxes over there vote for or against these tax cuts? We're giving them the opportunity. Their only argument is to say, 'The Labor Party won't deliver those.' Well, you can make them law right here, right now, tonight. You can make the tax cuts law by legislating them. The reason I suspect they won't is that the government will vote against them. The government will vote against the tax cuts which the Labor Party is proposing and is happy to legislate this evening in this House. The Labor Party is happy to legislate it right now.</p><p>The Labor Party can do this because we've made good, difficult but well-calibrated decisions elsewhere in the budget to ensure that this is sensible, sustainable and responsible. The government has done none of those things. They have a modest tax cut on 1 July 2018, which we are happy to support. We just voted for it. That's why we sat with the government to make those tax cuts a reality. We certainly think that they should happen, but we think that they should be the beginning not the end of tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners. We think that, with wages growth at record lows, wages growth hardly keeping up with inflation and cost-of-living pressures on Australians of modest incomes, they deserve a bigger and better tax cut, and the Labor Party will deliver it. We're more than happy to deliver tonight. We're ready to vote for it now, and we will vote for it now, and I look forward to hearing the Treasurer opposing bigger tax cuts for working Australians.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Morrison</p><p>When it comes to Labor and taxes, they're unbelievable. They really are. We all remember the Paul Keating tax cuts, the L-A-W law tax cuts. We remember those. The Labor Party thinks that the ears of Australians are painted on and that they never hear what it says. But they do hear what it says and they do see what it does, and what it does is make big promises. Labor even promised to put the tax cuts in law. L-A-W was the famous phrase of Paul Keating. But we know they don't believe it, they don't do it and they don't follow through. They are completely unbelievable.</p><p>The other thing we've learnt from the Labor Party today is that Labor does not have a plan for personal taxes. They have no plan to deal with bracket creep. They have no plan to make taxes simpler. They have no plan to deal with people who are able to do better over time and ensure that bracket creep is addressed. They've got no plan for that. All we've heard from the Labor Party is some sort of Dutch auction on tax. We're not going to get involved in that, because we have a responsible plan. We have an affordable plan. We have a structured plan to deal with structural problems in the tax system.</p><p>What you're hearing from the Labor Party is what you always hear from the Labor Party before an election: 'We'll do this. We'll do that.' And you all know what happens after the election. If they're elected, it all turns to custard, absolute custard. Whether it's with their forecasts of revenue that we heard or the four surpluses announced tonight, none of them ever turn up. This is why they're completely unbelievable when it comes to tax, deficits, surpluses, budgets and debts—all of these things. They are just completely unbelievable when it comes to tax and the economy.</p><p>I'll tell you the other thing about this mob. What they're not telling Australians as they put this forward tonight, and what they didn't tell them the other night, is who's paying for this. Who's paying for this at the end of the day? The reason we're not supporting these amendments is that we don't support all of the other taxes that they're putting on Australians to go around and make these big-noting promises. Let's run through what some of those are. What the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer say is that they're paying for this by pulling bigger taxes out of big companies, but let's look at what the budget and forward estimates show. What the budget forward estimates show is that, over this period to 2021-22, the biggest tax increase is not reversing the enterprise tax plan at all. It's not that at all.</p> <p class="speaker">Honourable Members</p><p>Honourable members interjecting—</p> <p class="speaker">Kevin Andrews</p><p>Order! There's too much noise.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Morrison</p><p>That's $6.2 billion, and that is for them reversing tax cuts for small businesses, medium-sized businesses and businesses up to a turnover of around $100 million. There are no big banks there, no big multinationals there, just higher taxes for small businesses and medium-sized businesses. There are higher taxes for those on the highest rate of income tax. There's $5.2 billion in that, but that does not come within a bull's roar of the real target of the Labor Party when it comes to tax, and that's their retirees tax.</p><p>The Parliamentary Budget Office estimates that they will take $10.7 billion from the retirees of Australia. This is a Labor Party which sees an older Australian and just sees a tax target.</p><p class="italic">Ms Rowland interjecting—</p> <p class="speaker">Kevin Andrews</p><p>Order! The member for Greenway will desist.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Morrison</p><p>Older Australians have a target on their backs from this Leader of the Opposition, because he knows how to put his hand in their pockets and in their purses. What he knows, if he bothers to listen to Australians, is this: they know. They know that you're coming after them if you get into government.</p><p class="italic">Dr Leigh interjecting—</p><p>Yes, I note the member for Fenner. Older people are humans too, Member for Fenner, and you're after them as well. Those retirees are going to remember every single one of you. There are thousands in your electorates, and they are a quiet army against the election of a Labor government at the next poll. They will remember you, and they will put a 1 in the Liberal box. They'll say to the Leader of the Opposition, 'We've had enough of your big taxes.' Higher taxes, bigger spending, bigger deficits—that is the story of the Labor Party. That's what these amendments say once again. Labor cannot be trusted on tax. They are unbelievable from here to eternity.</p> <p class="speaker">Bill Shorten</p><p>I rise to support these amendments because 10 million Australians deserve a fair dinkum tax cut next year. We have seen this economy being mismanaged for the last five years. The cost of living goes up and up and up. Private health insurance companies know a soft touch when they see one in the government. The out-of-pocket costs of Medicare are going up and up and up, and wages growth is flatlining. Energy prices—well, that's just far too hard for this government to fix. This is why the government should support a fair dinkum tax cut for 10 million working Australians. The look of stunned surprise on a government not known for its innovation when it heard on budget reply night that Labor was able to support a tax cut almost double that of the government's speaks volumes for the lack of imagination of this government.</p><p>What we endure in question time is the Liberal Party and the National Party saying that they will offer lower taxes to Australians. Well, if they vote against this amendment they are wrong, wrong wrong. Only Labor is offering 10 million working Australians almost double the tax cut next year of this government's tax cut this year. Labor supports the plan on 1 July this year—of course we do—but next year we want to do almost double that. Labor can offer lower taxes for 10 million working Australians because we can pay for our promises. Look at the Treasurer. We know he's listening—he's just pretending not to! He wishes that he had thought of our idea. But he can't—because they have already sold the budget to the top end of town. We can afford to pay for our much better tax cuts for 10 million working Australians because we're not giving $80 billion away, most of which goes to the top end of town. Only a government truly arrogant, truly out of touch and truly in the pockets of the big banks—they're giving $17 billion to the big banks—</p><p class="italic">Mr Sukkar interjecting—</p><p>The member for Deakin knows I'm right. Only this government would offer $17 billion to the big end of town and the banks whilst denying working Australians a tax cut of about $20 week.</p><p>We can afford to pay for our promise to give 10 million Australians lower taxes because we've made genuine economic reform proposals which we'll put to the people. We will reform negative gearing. We won't be handing out income tax refunds to people who don't pay income tax. We will tidy up the family trust discretionary situation, where the lucky few can income split and the many cannot. But not only, when they vote against our amendments, can they no longer say that they are the party of lower taxes; not only can they not say that Labor can't afford the promise because, in fact, every day they go around the country saying the problem is that Labor has made economic decisions and they are not prepared to give away corporate taxes to the big end of town. They know we have a better tax offer, a better income tax cut, for 10 million Australians. They know we can pay it. But they also know the final fact of the matter: they know we have a better economic plan. This Treasurer's budget on the Tuesday night was so devoid of information. It was a statement of residual accounts of the nation, with their sneaky cuts to hospitals and schools and TAFE baked into it.</p><p>We can assure Australians that we have a winning trifecta for the middle class and working class of this country. We can afford to this pay down our national debt faster because of our genuine economic reforms. We can afford to properly fund our schools, reverse the $17 billion cuts that these Luddites are inflicting on the children of the future, properly fund TAFE with 100,000 places that the upfront fees pay for and provide 200,000 more university places. We can do the trifecta of better income tax, better deals for hospitals, schools, TAFE and universities and pay down the national debt—because we have a plan. I say to the government: if you vote against these income tax cuts tonight, we will remind you every day between now and whenever the by-elections are and whenever the election is. The next election will decide the future of this country. It will decide what sort of society and what sort of direction we want. It will decide whether we want trickle-down economics, from the representatives of big business, or fair go economics where Labor puts 10 million Australians first, second and third.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>
|