MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Mr VENNING (Grey) (16:10): The coalition supports the decision by the Fair Work Commission to increase the minimum wage by 4.75 per cent. We want people to take home more pay. We want to see them rewarded for their work.

And for those opposite to suggest otherwise is a gross distortion of the truth. That is nothing new from them in this House. But we need to look at the reality behind those numbers.

The commission noted that while last year gave us a wage increase, inflation has opened up that gap again. Let me be clear: the wage gap is a result of Labor failing to control inflation. Under this government, wages have gone backwards by three per cent since they took office.

Labor's budget forecasts show that wages will continue to fall. We want all wages to rise. But living standards improve only if we lower inflation and increase the size of the economy.

There is no comfort in a wage increase if inflation just eats it away before the money hits the bank account. The best way to improve living standards is to get inflation down, lift productivity and support businesses so they can employ more people. If you run a small business you know how hard it is.

You want to hire, but you just cannot afford it. We saw the labour force data last week. Almost 700,000 Australians are unemployed.

It is critical that Labor drops its taxes on businesses and tackles inflation. When businesses struggle with costs and taxes they create fewer jobs. They offer fewer opportunities for people looking for work.

Wage increases mean nothing to Australian families if you don't have a job in the first place. This government has pushed an agenda that means households go backwards. Labor is taking money from Australians through inflation.

They take it at the supermarket, they take it on your mortgage and they take it silently every year through bracket creep. They did not pass laws to do this. Australians do not notice it until they look in their bank accounts.

The inflation tax must end. This is why we announced our tax-back guarantee. We are forced to live within our means.

So should the government. The tax-back guarantee is an automatic tax cut. It gets bigger every year, to help with the cost of living.

It protects wages by indexing income tax thresholds to inflation. This means you do not get taxed more simply because prices have gone up and government cannot control its spending. We believe that when you earn money, risk your money and save your money you get to keep it.

From the year 2028 a coalition government will index the bottom two thresholds to inflation. This will protect around 85 per cent of income earners. It will deliver relief of around $250 in year 1, growing to more than $1,000 in year 4.

From the year 2031 we will index the top two thresholds as well. This will protect all taxpayers. Because of inflation, the tax cuts from Labor will be wiped out by Christmas.

Ours will not. We will stop this cycle at the source. Any government that wants to tax people more should have the courage and the conviction to take that to an election.

Instead, Labor use inflation to do the work for them. They let prices rise, they push wages into higher brackets and they take the cash. It is simply not fair.

Families sit around the kitchen table trying to make the math work, but the maths ain't mathing. The maths ain't mathing, especially when the government starts taking a bigger slice of an ever-shrinking pie. But we have a plan to fix this.

I want to give people hope. I want to reward effort. We want an economy that works for you and works to restore our way of life.