MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Mr GOSLING (Solomon) (15:45): The shadow Treasurer has come into this place with his insane and irresponsible tax policy, and it comes with a massive price tag. It would be about $273 billion over the next nine years—big figure. It's no wonder that those opposite racked up a trillion dollars of Liberal debt over a decade when they were in government.

What's even more amateur, and demonstrative of the ineptitude of those opposite, is that they haven't explained how on earth they would pay for it. Where will those cuts be to realise required offsets? The shadow Treasurer has been silent on this.

It's absolutely crickets on that. But we know what the Leader of the Opposition is up to. He wants to rip benefits off taxpaying permanent residents, and that is shameful.

This MPI gives those on this side, the Albanese Labor government, the opportunity to elaborate on how we are responsibly reducing taxes for working Australians and giving more Australians a chance to realise the dream of homeownership, earn more but, importantly, keep more of what they earn. Those opposite should get on board and back tax cuts for working Australians.

This Labor government is rolling out tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer this year and next year and delivering new and permanent income tax cuts for every Australian worker through the $250 working Australians tax offset along with the $1,000 instant tax deduction. In just weeks from now—from 1 July, which happens to be Territory Day—130,000 Territory taxpayers will receive another tax cut on top of the tax relief this government has already delivered.

We're helping more people into homeownership as well. We're reforming the tax system to support 75,000 more homeowners into the housing market and investing an extra $2 billion—with a 'b'—for enabling infrastructure to support up to 65,000 more homes and taking our Homes for Australia plan to over $47 billion. We are also helping to secure social housing for more than 4,000 eligible young people at risk of homelessness, with $59.4 million for the states and territories.

I again call on the NT government to engage with the HAFF and in particular stage 3. Territorians are taking up in big numbers the five per cent deposit scheme. Already, 1,350 in Darwin and Palmerston have got on board that five per cent deposit scheme.

We have recently increased that to include properties of up to $750,00 in the greater Darwin area. But our government is doing more. Better services like urgent care clinics are providing free health services when they're urgently needed by Territorians.

Palmerston has been one of the best performing urgent care clinics in the country. We've recently opened in Darwin, and I want to acknowledge the health minister—who's in the chamber with us—for his support of Territorians. We've seen a massive uplift in the bulk-billing available to Territorians right across the Territory.

We are making health care more affordable and more accessible, including making Medicare urgent care clinics a permanent feature of Australia's health system. We're also making medicines cheaper and making major record investments in our public hospitals. We also had the Deputy Prime Minister up in Darwin recently for the opening of the Darwin urgent care clinic.

That's been really supported as well. We've already seen many hundreds of people, in just the first week alone of the Darwin urgent care clinic's opening, receive care for free when they need it. That's taking pressure off Royal Darwin Hospital, which is fantastic as well.

At the same time, we're building a stronger budget with lower deficits and less debt, which is helping to take the pressure off inflation and build our fiscal buffers during this period of global uncertainty. I wouldn't expect those opposite to consider any of that, because they are quite incapable of understanding their own history, so here's a quick history lesson.

The then prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, introduced income tax indexation in the 1976 budget reforms as a major economic reform to address bracket creep, and I'll continue this later on.