"The Albanese Labor government is delivering tax cuts to all Australians, making sure that everyday Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn. We're delivering these tax cuts for every Australian to help with the cost of living. That relief is exactly what our tax cuts for middle Australia will help to deliver."

Address to the House of Representatives, MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE - New Vehicle Efficiency Standard

Thursday 29 February 2024

The great Arthur Mailey, variously a cricketer, author and then a butcher, once described his life as, 'I used to bowl tripe, I wrote tripe and then I sold tripe.' Frankly, the underlying premise of this motion is tripe. At best, it is fantasist fiction. In weeks when there have been opportunities to genuinely support action on the cost of living, such as real support for Labor's tax cuts; opportunities to genuinely support action on affordable housing by supporting Labor's Help to Buy housing legislation; and opportunities, this year, to support measures that are getting wages moving in this country again, what have we had? Of course, we've had opposition to these. Instead, we have this tripe. The member for Bradfield knows that this is tripe and is too embarrassed to be in the chamber during this debate. This MPI is all smoke and mirrors, but it's a mirror that the opposition isn't willing to look into. It's about avoiding talking about the real cost-of-living relief that this government is delivering for all Australians.

The real question we must ask ourselves is: why do the Liberals hate families being able to drive around in the family car? When did it become a bad policy to want Australian families to enjoy long family road trips without it breaking the bank? We, on this side of the House, want Australians to have a greater choice of new vehicles and to pay less of their hard earned cash on fuel, so that families can afford to take long family road trips and take climate change action at the same time.

Instead of making claims that they know are false and that the member for Bradfield, of course, knows are false, those opposite need to explain why they think hardworking Australians should be denied access to cars that we know are going to be cheaper to run year after year. We know why, though, because the reality is that those opposite don't really care about the cost of living. They only care about what sound bite sounds good today. The Liberals and Nationals have never seen a cost-of-living measure they haven't opposed. It's not in the DNA of those opposite to support measures to take the pressure of everyday Australians. They opposed cheaper childcare. They opposed cheaper medicines. They opposed energy bill relief. They even opposed our tax cuts for middle Australians. Those opposite are addicted to opposing cost-of-living relief.

When asked if the opposition would roll back Labor's tax cuts, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said, 'Well, this is our position. This is absolutely our position.' We will not forget that. The Albanese Labor government is delivering tax cuts to all Australians, making sure that everyday Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn. We're delivering these tax cuts for every Australian to help with the cost of living. That relief is exactly what our tax cuts for middle Australia will help to deliver. On this side we stand in support of workers all across Australia. On that side they want to roll back those tax cuts.

Locally, here in the ACT, 79 per cent of taxpayers will be better off. In my electorate of Bean, 83 per cent of taxpayers will benefit from these changes. What does that mean? It means a primary school teacher in Bean working at Arawang Primary School earning $85,000 will get a tax cut of $1,800 come 1 July. The electrician working on construction sites in Woden earning $110,000 will get a tax cut of more than $2,400. The software engineer working at the Department of Social Services in Greenway on more than $140,000 will get a tax cut of $3,700. And the nurse working at Goodwin Village in Farrer, in my part of the world, which is otherwise known as Farrerdise—who received increases in their pay in last year's budget—will now get an additional $1,500 tax cut. This Albanese Labor government has a strong, targeted and responsible plan to continue our fight in delivering real cost-of-living relief for all Australians while laying the foundations for a stronger and more resilient economy.

Women will be major beneficiaries of these tax cuts, with 5.8 million women or 90 per cent of female taxpayers getting a bigger tax cut. Our tax cuts will provide an incentive for people to work more and earn more. The government's tax cuts complement continuing reforms to address women's economic inequality, which is something we know the opposition not only doesn't care about but is actively opposed to measuring. These include reforms to close the gender pay gap, support workplace flexibility and security and rebalance unpaid care work.

Under Labor more people are working and more people are earning more. Under our plan, more people will keep more of what they earn. That's the reality. That's not fiction. It's not tripe.