QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (14:04): Well, we're changing— Mr Thompson interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Herbert will leave the chamber under 94(a). The Prime Minister has not even begun words.
The member for Herbert then left the chamber. The SPEAKER: We are lifting the standards today. Honourable members interjecting— The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition and the Minister for Social Services, I heard both of those.
We are going to improve standards today. This parliament has not been its best this week, in behaviour and language. I've made it clear how I expect the parliament to operate.
I'm asking all members to join and make sure that we show respect to one another and behaviour is improved. Mr ALBANESE: In the legislation that the Treasurer introduced this morning, it proposes to change the tax system to give young people a fair crack at a first home as well as to build more homes. That is what the legislation does.
It also changes the way that capital gains tax is treated so that there's more fair treatment of income earned from working, which is how most Australians get their income and pay their bills and buy their food. Income earned from assets is something that is different from earning from working, and there's nothing wrong with that. But why is it that, for so long, so many have commentated that there's a disadvantage in income earned from working compared with income earned from assets?
In addition to that, there are two further changes. One is the thousand-dollar automatic tax deduction, something that will assist, particularly, low- and middle-income earners. The other change, of course, is our latest income tax reduction.
We have introduced reduction after reduction after reduction after reduction after reduction—five lots of income tax reduction. The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition is going to take his point of order. Mr Taylor: On relevance, the question was very clear in asking why the Prime Minister hasn't got the guts to take his toxic taxes to an election.
The SPEAKER: Order! Adding extra words as part of the point of order is disorderly. I remind all members, when they're taking points of order, just to state that it's on relevance without extra commentary.
Mr ALBANESE: The Leader of the Opposition was triggered when I was talking about reducing income taxes. Immediately, you speak about reducing taxes, and they get upset. They've never been more angry than when we reduce income taxes for working Australians, which is what the legislation that we've introduced today will do.
We're giving every member a chance—for some of whom this might be the last chance they have—to vote on income tax reductions. Over and over again, those opposite voted against the changes to stage 3 tax cuts. They voted against the income tax cuts when we introduced them in the last budget.
They went to an election saying they would increase taxation for 14 million Australians and managed to, at the same time, have bigger deficits—quite an achievement for the former shadow treasurer. How did they respond to that? They made him the leader.
The SPEAKER: The Leader of the House, on a point of order? Mr Burke: There was an interjection made by the Leader of the Opposition, which was way beyond unparliamentary, at the start of that answer. The SPEAKER: Because of the issues I've raised with this House, I can't hear every interjection, but, if the Leader of the Opposition made an unparliamentary remark, then, to assist the House, I'll get him to withdraw it.
Mr Taylor: To assist the House, I withdraw. The SPEAKER: I thank the Leader of the Opposition. I remind everyone that, if the number of interjections is reduced, I will hear more of the debate, which is in the best interests of the House.