QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator O'NEILL (New South Wales) (16:01): After the contributions we've had, the actually terrible quality of the questions that were asked of the government today and these hyperbolic, hyperventilating responses, we really just need to pull it back and get some facts on the table. I grew up in Australia where you worked hard and you paid your fair share of taxes, and whether you were in a small business, a large business or whether you're a worker, we were all in it together.

I actually think Australians still believe it's good to get a tax cut. The legislation that has gone through today is going to deliver a tax cut for over 13 million people who are working in our country. Whether they're in a small business, a big business or getting their first job—it doesn't matter—13.3 million of us are getting a tax cut.

Yet you heard these fear and alarm contributions from the opposition, who went to the last election wanting to tax Australians more. So it's hard to hear anything they say as authentic and genuine. The other thing is that I was a teacher before I came into this place, and I lectured a whole lot of teachers who went out to teach the future of our nation.

Some of them had come to university through TAFE themselves. People getting proper training makes a big difference to what happens in our country. Even amongst those students who got to me uni—across the course of my teaching time, I saw a lot of people who had a lot of trouble trying to manage paperwork.

It's not their priority. They just want to go to work, do their job and pay their tax. When tax time comes around, they don't want to ask for anything more than they deserve; they just want a fair go.

I'm thinking about lots of kids who had very messy homework, if it came in. Those people are going to get $1,000 as an instant tax deduction. They don't have to have the shoebox.

They don't have to pull the bits and pieces of paper together. They don't have to have it on some app that you pay for. They're going to get a $1,000 instant tax deduction.

That's it. We legislated today for that. Yet from the bleating, the moaning, the fear, the alarm, the drama—there's drama everywhere you look in terms of the Liberal-National coalition—you'd think that people had their throats slit today.

The reality is a $1,000 tax cut, an instant tax deduction, for every Australian. That's what's going to happen as a consequence of this. They're just two of the items that are coming through.

I know as a Labor politician we have such a long way to go to really fulfil the promise of Australia and people who want a fair go, but we're committed to that task. Some of the measures in this budget will let us move to that $47 billion home investment for Australia. So far, we've helped over 260,000 ordinary, decent, hardworking Australians into their first homes with a five per cent deposit.

All we get is no and no and negativity from the opposition and their partners, who sit and want to plan some sort of dastardly future for the country. I think it's great that 260,000 families have a roof over their head tonight because of Labor policy. This is another great achievement today in tax reform for the Australian people—binding us together, not pulling us apart.