Good evening and thanks for joining us at this unusual time for a media conference. But Labor’s cost of living tax cuts have just passed the parliament. This is a huge win for all 13.6 million Australian taxpayers. It means 84 per cent of Australians will get a bigger tax cut than they would have under the Liberals plan. Under Labor, Australians are earning more and they will get to keep more of what they earn. Peter Dutton wants people to work longer for less, and this is a great divide in Australian politics. Peter Dutton and the Liberals of course when this was announced, first they said they would oppose it. Then they said they would fight it. Then they said they would roll it back. Then Peter Dutton called for a federal election on this policy before they voted for it. Well they can change the way that they vote, but they can’t change who they are. They will never stand up for low and middle income earners. These tax cuts are aimed squarely at middle Australia, understanding the cost of living pressure that low and middle income Australians are under. I ran in the election with the philosophy of no one left behind, and no one held back. These tax cuts that we have passed through the Senate tonight are consistent with that. No one left behind because people earning under $45,000 deserve a tax cut as well, and they will get one. No one left behind because we’ve made sure that we’ve adjusted the marginal tax rates including lifting the top rate from $180,000 to $190,000 because we believe that the measures should be targeted right through the tax system. That’s what we’ve managed to achieve here. That is what we’ve argued the case for. That is what the Liberals have reluctantly supported. But at the same time, they’ve moved amendments in both the House and in the Senate, referring to their old, unfair plan that was in place before tonight. Well, this is a good result for all Australian taxpayers, and we’re very proud to have delivered it.
KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND WOMEN: Thanks, Prime Minister. Well, the passage of this bill tonight is a great result for Australian women. We know that 100 per cent of women paying tax will get a tax cut. We know that 90 per cent of them will get a bigger tax cut than they would under the former plan. And we also know that it’s good for participation. So if you want to pick up an extra shift, work a few extra hours, you won’t get penalised because you will be able to keep more of what you earn. So from a participation point of view, the Treasury analysis shows that, but also from just getting some more money in your pocket when you’re putting those household budgets together. And we know many women across Australia are doing that. When we look at those highly feminised industries, the numbers, the bigger tax cuts are even greater. So when you look at childcare, carers, 97 per cent get a bigger tax cut. When we look at registered nurses, 97 per cent. When we look at aged care and disability care where we see lots of women in those industries, they will get a much bigger tax cut under this plan. And we know that it works in conjunction with some of the other measures that the government has put in place, some of our energy bill relief, our childcare support, our Medicare investments. All of these areas, whether it be income support payments, we know a lot of women are on those, some of them are working part time getting those payments, all of those measures working together to drive women’s economic equality in this country. So, a good day from gender pay gap publication, to the passage of the tax cuts. An important day for Australian women.
PRIME MINISTER: Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: The tax cuts have passed just four days before the Dunkley by-election. It seems handy. Is that just coincidence or timing?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we hope to get a good result in the Dunkley by-election, and everyone in Dunkley will know that we wanted every single taxpayer in Dunkley to get a tax cut. And people in Dunkley will
also know that Peter Dutton wanted those who are in working part time or in low paid work, earning under $45,000 would have not got a single dollar if we hadn’t have acted in the way that we have. In Jodie Belyea we have a strong candidate in Dunkley. She is someone who will carry on the legacy of Peta Murphy quite proudly. It is a tragedy, of course, that this by-election is taking place because of the untimely passing of Peta Murphy, who was such a fighter for that electorate. She recruited Jodie Belyea to be the candidate for the Labor Party, and I hope that on Saturday people do vote for Jodie Belyea. But by-elections are always tough, so we’ll wait and see what happens.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you talked about Peter Dutton and his tactics in the lead-up to the Dunkley by-election. If the Coalition, I mean the Liberals have a swing towards them in the Dunkley by=election is that endorsement of his tactics?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I expect that in by-elections there’s normally swings away from the government. It would be remarkable if the one in one-hundred year result that we saw in Aston was unusual. We have seen the average swing, in the 19 by-elections held before the election of this government from Bob Hawke’s time, the average swing was 7.1 per cent away from whoever was in government at that time.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Coalition is now flagging it’s going to take its own fully fledged new tax policy to the next election. Do you intend to meet that policy challenge with this tax policy or do you envision some sort of revamped tax changes you’ll take to that?
PRIME MINISTER: They’ve been all over the shop haven’t they? They said that they’d oppose it. They said they’d fight it. They said they’d roll it back. They said there should be a federal election on the basis of our proposal that they today have voted for and that they voted for in the House of Representatives after moving amendments in both places, speaking about the principles of stage three being returned. Well, everyone under our plan has received a tax cut. If the Liberals go to an election, they have to say where the money is coming from. We very consciously as part of this plan, there $106 billion across the forwards allocated for tax cuts, previously that was factored into the Budget. We made sure that this plan costs $107 billion, it’s around about the same amount. We think that was important. If the Liberals are going to have tax cuts they have to say, where will the cuts be for services? Last time Peter Dutton came into office, he was a health minister who tried to introduce a GP tax to get rid of bulk billing. He tried to introduce a tax every time people would turn up to an emergency department. He tried to introduce higher costs for medicines. And when he couldn’t get through all of that plan that would have destroyed the public health system, what he did was, he froze GP payments as well, with consequences for bulk billing and for people having access to health care. This is an Opposition that the lesson they learned from the last election was to move further to the right, to become more conservative, to make more attacks against public services in education and health and housing. They have nothing to offer that is positive for the nation. Everything is met with a no response, which is why they said no to cheaper childcare, no cheaper medicines, no to the bulk billing tripling of the incentives that we put in place, no to the Energy Price Relief Plan, no to additional funding for public and community housing and affordable housing. And originally of course, they said no to these tax cuts. I think people are on to Peter Dutton and the plan that he has. If he has a policy on tax, it will be unique because at the moment it’s a blank page, except for some obscure plan for nuclear reactors, the type of which doesn’t actually exist in practice. Something that no one will fund and something they won’t say where they will go.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Mr Dutton did say no to these tax cuts originally, or his party did. But you also said that you wouldn’t change Stage Three and that your word is your bond. Aren’t the Australian people faced tonight with a government and an opposition who have both voted for something they said they wouldn’t?
PRIME MINISTER: What they are faced with is a government led by myself, with Katy and Jim Chalmers as Treasurer, who are prepared to make the right decision for the right reasons. This was not an easy decision, but it was absolutely the right decision. Which is why we argued our case. We didn’t do it, not upfront, I went to the National Press Club and explained the case of why we were doing it. But we did it in a responsible way. We looked at ways in which we could address the cost of living pressures facing low and middle income earners in a way that did not impact on inflation. And Treasury advice was essentially that this was overwhelming, overwhelmingly the best position to take. And when economic circumstances change, then the decision that we made was to change our position. We were upfront about that and we argued the case. We changed our position for reasons of good economic policy. Peter Dutton changed his position at the last minute because of politics. Because everything about what Peter Dutton does, is about the politics. It’s never about helping people, it’s never about growing the economy, it’s never about the national interest. It’s always just about his own political interest. Thanks very much.
