MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Ms FRANCE (Dickson) (15:40): I have to say that this MPI is quite the own goal for the member for Goldstein, the shadow treasurer. I'll just start with this quote: Today it's time to be honest: the tax system is screwing over young Australians. Instead, it favours well-off, established interests against those trying to get ahead.
I wholeheartedly agree. As we've heard in this place time and time again, that is the view of the shadow treasurer, the member for Goldstein. On 12 February 2018, in this very chamber, the member for Goldstein stood and admitted that the tax system, as it was, was unfair.
He said that the tax burden fell 'mostly on young and working Australians'. He said: … people who can predominantly live off of income from their assets can pay very little tax and get discounts on capital gains from increases in asset values. I wholeheartedly agree, and so does this side of the House.
That is a quote taken directly from Hansard, yet the shadow treasurer stands here today and cries the opposite. Let's get something straight: we are cutting taxes for working Australians—cutting them—and we are evening the playing field for working Australians. Why should working Aussies be paying a higher percentage of tax than investors?
The member for Goldstein talks about hairdressers and brickies. Why should they pay a higher tax rate than investors? Why should investors pay an effective rate of 23.5 per cent on their earnings while nurses, cleaners and teachers pay 32 per cent?
I've yet to hear a coherent answer on that from those opposite. Our working Australians tax offset, announced in the budget, will put $250 back into the pockets of millions of working Australians every single year. We've also introduced a $1,000 instant tax deduction, which will kick in on 1 July.
On top of that, the tax cuts we've already legislated will land on 1 July this year and again next year. Add it up and the average worker will have about $2,800 back in their pocket by 2028. Those opposite voted against all of that.
You lecture us as though you actually support tax cuts, but we all know that those opposite went to the last election promising higher taxes. The designer of that genius plan was the former shadow treasurer, now the Leader of the Opposition. When it comes to backing a tax cut for working Australians, for weeks those opposite have pushed misinformation about our tax changes.
Let's talk about real economic harm. During COVID, those opposite funnelled billions of taxpayer dollars into big corporations that actually saw turnover increases and went on to post record profits. It left us with nearly $1 trillion in debt—debt Labor is now paying down.
As a share of the economy, debt is now lower than what we inherited from those opposite. Those opposite allowed manufacturing to collapse in this country, to the point that manufacturing self-sufficiency was at the lowest level in the OECD. That is real and lasting economic vandalism.
And who could forget the early superannuation access scheme, which drained $38 billion from the retirement system? An economist described this as an absolute disaster. The third-largest spending category of that scheme was gambling.
A lot of super went into poker machines and online gambling. The real harm is pretending that homes are affordable when they're not. The real harm is having our nurses and teachers—hardworking Aussies—paying a higher tax rate than investors.
We could choose to ignore them. We could do that. We could take the easy way out.
We could pretend that the tax system is just fine as it is. But then we would be the coalition. No thanks.
We are here to even the playing field for working Australians. We are delivering exactly what the member for Goldstein asked for all the way back in 2018—a fairer tax system. You should be celebrating that.