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| Tax legislation passes in Senate in its entirety – politics live | Tax legislation passes in Senate in its entirety – politics live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Michael McCormack seems to have decided that the way to have personality in question time dixers is just to yell louder. | |
| Moving on. | |
| Terri Butler to Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| “Why did the Prime Minister team up with One Nation to give themselves a tax cut instead of supporting Labor’s plan to give the people in Longman, who earn less than $125,000 a tax cut,must double the tax cut that they will get from the Government? Why will the government not do more to help working Australian’s rather than tell themselves to get a better job and himself and Senator Hanson a $7000 tax cut?” | |
| Scott Morrison takes this one: | |
| He is still going, but the answer boils down to this (other than the obvious one that the Coalition will never vote for Labor’s economic policy) | |
| People don’t believe Labor on taxes. It is that simple. They make all sorts of promises. The one I like at the moment is that the shadow Treasurer says he is going to put the deficit levy back on and he promises to take it away three years later. He really does. They promised to turn back the boats. Sure you will. You’re right. People do not, Australians do not believe Labor and the promises they make on tax. For the simple reason they know that every chance Labor gets they will tax them more.” | |
| Cathy McGowan has the independent’s question - it is on cross-border red tape. An important issue if you sit between Victoria and NSW: | |
| My community is asking when will we start seeing the results of these discussions and when will you take a leadership role in holding the state governments to account to deliver on these commitments?” | |
| Craig Laundy: The short version, is the government is hoping to have “deliverables” from those discussions in the next three months. | |
| Julie Collins to Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| “Why did the prime minister team up with One Nation to give themselves a tax cut instead of supporting Labor’s plan to give the 39,000 people in Braddon who earn less than $135,000 a tax cut of up to $928 a year, almost double the tax cut they will get from this government? Why will the prime minister not do more to help working Australians?” | |
| Turnbull: | |
| [The short version] Tasmania’s economy is growing because of us, the good burghers of Braddon know that, everyone can aspire for all of the things. | |
| Alice Workman has published this story on Buzzfeed a couple of minutes ago: | |
| 21-year-old apprentice Jasmyn Smith was shocked when a security officer told her to remove the T-shirt she was wearing, which featured a small Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) logo, in the middle of the public foyer at Parliament House. | |
| Smith, a third-year electrical apprentice from Launceston, was visiting Canberra for National TAFE Day to speak to politicians about issues faced by young apprentices. | |
| She arrived at the public entrance to Parliament House with around 20 apprentices from around the country on Wednesday morning. They entered the building in small groups, many wearing clothing, badges and backpacks with the CEPU or Electrical Trade Union (ETU) logo. | |
| But only Smith, and the group of five apprentices she was with, were approached by a security guard as they were standing in the Marble Foyer and told to take off their union clothing. | |
| Bill Shorten to Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| How is it fair that the prime minister teamed up with Senator Hanson to give themselves a $7,000 a year tax cut instead of supporting Labor’s plan to give 10 million working Australians a tax cut every year of up to $928 a year. Almost double the tax cut they are getting from the government. Why won’t the prime minister do more instead of helping himself to $7,000 a year tax cut every year? | |
| Turnbull: | |
| “A stronger economy enables more Australians to get a job. It enables more Australians to start businesses. It enables more Australians to earn higher wages. Everything depends on a stronger economy and providing the right incentives to ensure that as Australians work harder, work longer, work more skilled jobs, everything they do is intensified so that they can get ahead and realise their dreams. | |
| “This is what Labor used to be more about and the abandonment by the leader of the opposition flies in the face not just of what Keating and Hawke and Wran and others said, but it flies in the face of what he himself said. This is our leader who said in his maiden speech, Mr Speaker, the old class-war conflicts should finally be pronounced dead. Hang on. The real conflict, he said, is between those who are stuck in a business-as-usual routine and those that pursue innovation, knowledge and creativity. They are the drivers of economic growth around the world. He said, what I want to accomplish the working people is about aspiration. | |
| “Can it be true? | |
| “Was there there an impersonator? Is this the same leader of the of the opposition, the same member for Maribyrnong? Mr Speaker, everything the Labor party stood for was founded on was about encouraging Australians to get ahead. Everything. Everything they were founded on. That was their ideal, and our values of enterprise, investment, innovation, that is what we stand for and, you know, in many years, many times, the aspirations of both sides of politics often coincided. But now we see this huge gulf, Labor, less investment. We are for more investment. We are for a stronger economy. Labor is for a weaker economy. We are for lower taxes. Labor is for higher taxes. | |
| “$70 million more personal income taxable is what he will go to the election on. He will ask people to vote, to pay $70 million more personal income tax, and he will do that as will his colleagues, from the privileged position of a taxpayer-funded job here, treating with contempt the aspiration of hard-working...” | |
| He runs out of time before I have to run out of the room screaming. | |
| Also, if the 60-year-old aged care worker is a falsehood, then so is the constant references to mystified by aspiration and this is everything that is wrong with politics today. | |
| And I am in no mood. So this should be fun. | |
| Julie Collins to Malcolm Turnbull: | |
| This week the Prime Minister told a 60-year-old aged care worker to get a better job. Is he aware that a 65-year-old aged care worker has told the Burnie Advocate the prime minister is putting people down because they are doing a low-paid job? Is this why the prime minister and Senator Hanson teamed up to give aged care workers a tax cut of just $10 a week but give themselves a tax cut of $7 a year? | |
| Turnbull: | |
| The 65-year-old worker that wrote to the Devonport paper would expect a member of parliament not to begin her question with a falsehood. She knows very well, very, very well that what she has said about me, what she claimed I said is not true. It is the Labor party that says if you are 60 and an aged care worker, you can’t aspire to earn more, to a promotion, to get more training, to go from being a nurse to a manager or a personal care assistant to a nurse. That is the Labor party, the party the honourable member wants to keep those workers in their place. There used to be a time when the Labor party stood up for workers. They used to be a time the Labor party was all about aspiration, when they weren’t mystified by aspiration, when they believe in people getting ahead. And now we have a Labor party that has voted against Australian workers keeping more of the money they earn. | |
| He goes on, but honestly, life is short. You know what he said. We all know what he said. He has been saying it since Monday. | |
| Gareth Hutchens went to Chris Bowen’s press conference:“Well today, the fiscal recklessness and addiction to unfairness from the Turnbull government is perhaps starker than it’s ever been.“This is a government which celebrates when it reduces the fairness in Australia’s tax system. The government which used to lecture us about fiscal responsibility, debt and deficit disaster, which celebrates when it locks in $140bn of income tax cuts when they can give no certainty, and guarantees, about whether they are affordable or sustainable.“Let us be very clear: the Turnbull Government held the senate to ransom, held the tax cuts to hostage, and the senate agreed to that outcome.“The Labor party welcome the fact that low and middle income earners will receive tax relief from 1 July, we made it very clear we would pass that.In fact, we’ll provide tax cuts almost double that in the year that follows if we come to office. But the Labor party believes in responsible budgeting, prudent budgeting, careful budgeting. We don’t believe in locking-in unaffordable promises, six and seven years in advance. “And that, as we announced on Monday, will be a policy position we take to the next election. And that’s what we will take to the next election: sensible, well crafted, well-designed tax cuts, better, fairer, bigger tax cuts in the short term, not making people wait, providing tax relief for low and middle come earners in the first term of a Labor government. Not promising something on the never-never, but in the first term.” | |
| Michael Sukkar managed to kick the hornet’s nest this afternoon, when he said the Parliamentary Budget Office, the independent statutory authority which runs the numbers, had questions to answer. | |
| That was after it did the numbers for Labor’s own tax plan, which the government, through a Treasury analysis, said had a $10 billion black hole. The PBO took the pretty extraordinary step of defending itself, publicly. | |
| Everyone dropped it - but not Sukkar on Sky News a little earlier: | |
| “I think on this, there woul dhave to be qustions to be asked, absolutely,” he said. | |
| “...I support Treasury’s numbers on this...do you think that an incoming government wouldn’t take Treasury’s forecast when formulating the budget?” | |
| Chris Bowen says if the government is so pleased with its tax cuts – it should just call the election. | Chris Bowen says if the government is so pleased with its tax cuts – it should just call the election. |
| We all just got a taste of what those party room meetings Tony Abbott was complaining about are like: | We all just got a taste of what those party room meetings Tony Abbott was complaining about are like: |
| The next election is going to be a very clear choice. You will have the Labor party wanting higher taxes. We will be standing for lower taxes. Labor will be standing for fewer jobs. We will be standing for more jobs. We will be standing for a stronger economy, Labor will be standing for a weaker economy. And you know what that means? A weaker economy under Labor means you cannot afford to pay for the infrastructure, the hospitals, the schools, the defence capability. | The next election is going to be a very clear choice. You will have the Labor party wanting higher taxes. We will be standing for lower taxes. Labor will be standing for fewer jobs. We will be standing for more jobs. We will be standing for a stronger economy, Labor will be standing for a weaker economy. And you know what that means? A weaker economy under Labor means you cannot afford to pay for the infrastructure, the hospitals, the schools, the defence capability. |
| “All of those things Australians expect government to deliver need a strong economy to provide the revenues we need. And our plan for a stronger economy is working. Record jobs growth last year. Highest in our nation‘s history. 3.1 per cent GDP growth. And now we have been able to achieve through the parliament the biggest reform of personal income tax in a generation, so that 94 per cent of Australians will not pay more than 32.5 cents in the dollar as a marginal tax rate, and that is saying to Australians that we believe in you. | “All of those things Australians expect government to deliver need a strong economy to provide the revenues we need. And our plan for a stronger economy is working. Record jobs growth last year. Highest in our nation‘s history. 3.1 per cent GDP growth. And now we have been able to achieve through the parliament the biggest reform of personal income tax in a generation, so that 94 per cent of Australians will not pay more than 32.5 cents in the dollar as a marginal tax rate, and that is saying to Australians that we believe in you. |
| “We are believing in and backing your aspirations to get ahead. That is the values, the values. Those are the values we stand for. We are inspired by the aspiration of hard-working Australians. | “We are believing in and backing your aspirations to get ahead. That is the values, the values. Those are the values we stand for. We are inspired by the aspiration of hard-working Australians. |
| “The Labor party of today, as the Australian Financial Review said very well in the editorial today, the modern Labor party is mystified by aspiration. It denies it, it holds the aspirations and the dreams of hard-working Australians in contempt, and that is why they have voted against our personal income tax reform.” | “The Labor party of today, as the Australian Financial Review said very well in the editorial today, the modern Labor party is mystified by aspiration. It denies it, it holds the aspirations and the dreams of hard-working Australians in contempt, and that is why they have voted against our personal income tax reform.” |
| The Nationals would also like you to know they are happy with the tax bill passing. | The Nationals would also like you to know they are happy with the tax bill passing. |
| From Michael McCormack’s office:: | From Michael McCormack’s office:: |
| The Liberals and Nationals’ government has today achieved another significant outcome in further delivering on our plans to provide economic growth and job creation on which we were elected. | The Liberals and Nationals’ government has today achieved another significant outcome in further delivering on our plans to provide economic growth and job creation on which we were elected. |
| Passing our $144bn personal tax cut package represents a clear point of difference between our government and the poor Labor alternative. | Passing our $144bn personal tax cut package represents a clear point of difference between our government and the poor Labor alternative. |
| At each stage of the negotiations, Labor has stood for nothing but higher taxes, with Bill Shorten pushing a plan to increase financial pressures on all Australians by stripping money out of their pockets through lower incomes. | At each stage of the negotiations, Labor has stood for nothing but higher taxes, with Bill Shorten pushing a plan to increase financial pressures on all Australians by stripping money out of their pockets through lower incomes. |
| This includes those people living and working in regional Australia. | This includes those people living and working in regional Australia. |
| This tax relief means regional Australians will have more money to spend at their local store. Small businesses will keep more of their hard-earned profits to allow them to invest, grow and create more jobs. | This tax relief means regional Australians will have more money to spend at their local store. Small businesses will keep more of their hard-earned profits to allow them to invest, grow and create more jobs. |
| The Nationals represent people who need this tax relief the most. Allowing hard- working people to keep more of their own money in their own pockets is a real win for rural Australians. | The Nationals represent people who need this tax relief the most. Allowing hard- working people to keep more of their own money in their own pockets is a real win for rural Australians. |
| Under Labor’s proposal, average wage earners would have been forced to pay up to $2000 a year more in taxes by 2024. | Under Labor’s proposal, average wage earners would have been forced to pay up to $2000 a year more in taxes by 2024. |
| By failing to support steps two and three of the government’s personal income tax plan, Labor also proposed to rip $70bn in extra income tax from working Australians’ pay packets over the next 10 years. | By failing to support steps two and three of the government’s personal income tax plan, Labor also proposed to rip $70bn in extra income tax from working Australians’ pay packets over the next 10 years. |
| But thanks to the negotiations with the Senate crossbench led by finance minister Mathias Cormann, the Liberal and Nationals’ government has continued on a pathway of sound economic management. | But thanks to the negotiations with the Senate crossbench led by finance minister Mathias Cormann, the Liberal and Nationals’ government has continued on a pathway of sound economic management. |
| Tax cuts lead to higher wages, economic growth and more jobs while fulfilling the government’s commitment to helping families, small businesses and farmers. | Tax cuts lead to higher wages, economic growth and more jobs while fulfilling the government’s commitment to helping families, small businesses and farmers. |
| Neither Malcolm Turnbull or Mathias Cormann will say where their discussions with One Nation, on the corporate tax cuts, are at. Pauline Hanson indicated she would be willing to return to the government’s side, if they addressed multinational tax avoidance. | Neither Malcolm Turnbull or Mathias Cormann will say where their discussions with One Nation, on the corporate tax cuts, are at. Pauline Hanson indicated she would be willing to return to the government’s side, if they addressed multinational tax avoidance. |
| Scott Morrison says the government has already done that: | Scott Morrison says the government has already done that: |
| You are aware of the changes we have already made into things like stable structures and have been going through that process of multinational tax avoidance for many years. There is no jurisdiction in the world which has taken a stronger position on multinational tax avoidance than the Turnbull government. There is some $7 billion of revenue that has been caught up in Australia’s tax net as a result of the reforms we have put in place. | You are aware of the changes we have already made into things like stable structures and have been going through that process of multinational tax avoidance for many years. There is no jurisdiction in the world which has taken a stronger position on multinational tax avoidance than the Turnbull government. There is some $7 billion of revenue that has been caught up in Australia’s tax net as a result of the reforms we have put in place. |
| “In a few weeks’ time we will release a further discussion paper as I outlined in the budget in the whole area of digital taxation and the new economy. That will be there for consultation and discussion. When it comes to multinational tax, the Turnbull government is leading the way.” | “In a few weeks’ time we will release a further discussion paper as I outlined in the budget in the whole area of digital taxation and the new economy. That will be there for consultation and discussion. When it comes to multinational tax, the Turnbull government is leading the way.” |
| Scott Morrison, having failed to make unbelieva-Bill stick, is now fighting to have the Karate Kid part of the vernacular: | Scott Morrison, having failed to make unbelieva-Bill stick, is now fighting to have the Karate Kid part of the vernacular: |
| It will be tax on under Labor and it will be tax off continued under the Turnbull government.” | It will be tax on under Labor and it will be tax off continued under the Turnbull government.” |