QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (14:05): I thank Senator Grogan for that question. This is a responsible budget that is focused on relief, resilience and reform. The conflict in the Middle East is weighing heavily on our economy and compounding cost-of-living pressures facing Australians, so we're delivering more cost-of-living help and building a more productive economy, a fairer housing market and a stronger and more sustainable budget.
We're reforming the tax system for workers, businesses and future generations, and our tax reforms have three goals: to level the playing field and better align the tax treatment of income from work with income earned in other ways; to help more Australians recognise the dream of homeownership and get a foothold in the property market; and to improve productivity by encouraging innovation and investments.
Our reforms will build a better, fairer and simpler tax system by reducing the tax burden for over 13 million workers, supporting 75,000 more first home owners into the housing market, delivering over $3.8 billion in new measures that lower taxes for small businesses and startups, and reducing compliance costs by $540 million a year. This tax package is pro aspiration, pro worker and pro investment.
It builds on our reforms to date, including three rounds of tax cuts, making super fairer and more sustainable and making multinationals pay a fair share of tax. On 1 July this year, over 14 million Australians will get another tax cut of up to $268. Our combined tax cuts mean a worker on average wages will pay up to $2,800 less tax than what we inherited.
The Liberals and the Nationals tried to increase income taxes at the last election, and now they're defending the status quo, which punishes workers and locks too many people— (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Grogan, first supplementary?