We are finishing up a little earlier than usual this afternoon. I have an unavoidable appointment, I’m afraid.
It has been a looooong week, and we have another one ahead of us next week, so we’ve all earned an early mark, I think.
Go get some sunshine. Or at the very least some fresh air. Or a mint slice.
Now that tax, for the most part, is passed the Senate, you can expect the energy battle to start heating up next week – but just within the government party room. Josh Frydenberg has so far managed to hold off Tony Abbott’s insurgency but he has one more party room meeting to get through, and then an entire week of parliament, where all sorts of side meetings get to be held, before he meets with the energy ministers for Coag.
Doesn’t that sound like fun?
So enjoy this weekend, make sure you get some disconnect time, and we’ll see you back here bright and early on Monday for the next round of insanity, which promises to be turned up to 11, given that it is the last sitting until 13 August.
A massive thank you to the Guardian’s brains trust and to Mike Bowers, who all came together to drag me through another week.
And, as always, to you all for reading and tweeting and messaging. It does mean a lot.
Take some time to recharge – and remember: take care of you.
Updated
Richard Di Natale had a chat to Sky a little earlier: “Pauline Hanson is a fraud and she should be called out for it.”
Updated
We didn’t get to them earlier, because of question time, but Mike Bowers was running around those post-tax-package-passing press conferences a littler earlier:
Updated
The Business Council is happy with the tax package passing but says there is more to do. It’s not giving up on passing the corporate tax cuts. From its statement:
“We commend the Senate today for taking the first of two critical steps in improving our tax system by passing the income tax changes and urge the parliament to take the second step and deliver Australia a competitive company tax rate, the Business Council of Australia’s chief executive, Jennifer Westacott, said today.
“Personal and company tax reform done together is good for workers, good for jobs and good for the economy. Now is the time to turbo-charge the economy.
“The changes to personal income tax preserve the progressive nature of our system but encourage and reward aspiration and effort.
“It means Australians will keep more of their hard-earned money when they receive a promotion or get a few extra hours of work.
“Without the change, in a decade’s time the average worker would be faced with paying an extra $3,000 tax a year in today’s dollars.
“Fixing our business tax system will mean Australian businesses can better compete in an environment where tax rates across the globe are falling sharply.
“Australia’s 30% top company tax rate has been frozen in time for 17 years and is now out of step with nations such as the UK which is moving to 17%, the US which slashed its rate from 35% to 21%, and even France which has announced plans to drop its rate from 33 to 25%. The OECD average is 24% and in Asia it is 21%.
“We are kidding ourselves if we think we can impose one of the highest tax rates in the developed world on Australian businesses and expect them to continue to thrive, invest and create jobs.
“Failure to give Australia a more competitive business tax rate means we will leave $18bn a year bigger economy on the table.
“We need to get the settings right for business to improve competitiveness to continue to drive economic growth.
“It is time to end the nonsense that economic growth is at odds with fairness. When business thrives, Australia thrives. We cannot have a fairer society without a strong business sector.”
Updated
Having made mention of his “loyalty”, Pauline Hanson confirmed Peter Georgiou will lead the WA One Nation Senate ticket.
Updated
From Mike Bowers to you:
Updated
My count of the aspiration/aspires – 35
Mystified – 11
One Nation - 6
Arrogant – 1
Updated
After Steve Ciobo promises us a “more aspirational future” , question time ends.
Jim Chalmers to Malcolm Turnbull:
By the time they are fully implemented, stage three of the government’s personal income tax scheme and its big business handout will cost the budget at least $25bn a year. Why is the government giving $25bn every single year to big business and the top 20% of income earners when gross debt has already reached a record half $1tn under this prime minister?
Turnbull:
“As the honourable member knows, net debt is peaking this financial year as a share of GDP and we have turned the corner on the debt that the Labor party left us with. And we are backing hard-working Australian families to keep more of the money they have earned. We believe in the aspirations of hard-working Australian families, we want them to realise their dreams. We want them to be able to get ahead. We want them to be able to aspire to do all the things that a strong economy enables them to. Labor is standing in the way. Labor talks about health but undermines the strong economy that enables us to pay for it.”
It’s so nice to hear the government supports me in my aspiration/dream to ride a unicorn down a rainbow to visit a mer-cat.
Updated
Greg Hunt continues:
“If you can’t manage the economy, you can’t manage health AND LABOR WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO MANAGE THE ECONOMY.”
Updated
The result of the division is:
Ayes: 61
Noes: 75
Greg Hunt has turned a dixer on “delivering health services”, including those for motor neuron disease into a political issue. He talks about supporting the Big Freeze, which raises money for MND treatment, and trials and then says he was asked if there were any alternatives.
“... Our guarantee is that every medicine which is supported by the pharmaceutical benefits advisory committee, we will list that. But you can only do that, of course, if there is a strong economy. I am asked if there are any alternatives. I went to the 2011 budget papers. Because in 2011 Labor ...”
Tony Burke is having none of it:
Mr Speaker, for a long time there have been issues in this house that have been viewed as above politics. Issues like motor neurone disease have been part of them. To turn this into a partisan attack is not going to help the dignity of this house or question time.
But Hunt continues: “And page 121 of the portfolio budget statements said, in relation to seven medicines, “Given the current fiscal environment, the listing of some medicines would be deferred until fiscal circumstances permit.” Well, our guarantee is that as long as we are ...”
Burke calls for him to no longer be heard and the House divides.
Updated
Ged Kearney to Malcolm Turnbull: (the member for Batman is about to be the member for Cooper)
“Can the prime minister confirm that he teamed up with One Nation to vote for a tax scheme that will mean a surgeon at $200,000 will get a tax cut 16 times larger than a nurse on $40,000, despite having a salary only five times larger?
“Prime minister. How is that fair? Or is the prime minister telling nurses to just get a better job, too?”
Scott Morrison takes it and gives a lesson on the progressive tax system, which was summed up by Pauline Hanson this morning as “do you really think those on $200,000, you know and they’re making more than that, a $7,000 tax cut is going to make a big difference to them?”
Updated
Meanwhile:
Our attendants do not mess around. https://t.co/9lrrLhMQPO
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) June 21, 2018
Updated
Cathy O’Toole was just made to remove her Queensland scarf.
O’Toole to Malcolm Turnbull:
How is it fair that this prime minister teamed up with One Nation to give themselves a $7,000 tax cut, is giving a nurse at Caboolture a tax cut of only $10 a week and is cutting $2.9m from Caboolture hospital at the same time? Just how arrogant and out of touch is this prime minister’s policies?
Turnbull:
The claim the honourable member made about Caboolture hospital is completely false. Absolutely false. It is another one of those Labor lies that are being peddled around Longman, and it says a a lot about the character of the Labor party, that it is prepared to tell such lies, as I described a moment ago, funding for public hospitals in Queensland from the Commonwealth is increasing every year and in particular, to the Metro north part of Queensland where the Caboolture hospital is to be found.
Updated
Peter Dutton is up to talk about how safe we are and how unsafe we could be.
He says he has cancelled “more visas of criminals in the last 12 months than Labor cancelled in six years”.
Updated
Chris Bowen to Malcolm Turnbull:
How is it fair that the government is giving $25bn every single year to business in the top 20% of income earners while it is cutting billions from schools and hospitals?
Turnbull:
He reverts to the “record” health spending argument – and he is right, because there is always record funding in health and education, because those two services just continue to grow. BUT – Labor is also right, because funding the states were expecting to receive in those areas, in the forwards, was cut in 2014. So the funding is not increasing at the rate it expected, which could be described as, I don’t know – a funding cut.
Updated
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, double the tax cut that they will get from the Government? Why will the government not do more to help working Australians 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.”
Updated
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.
Updated
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.
Updated
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.
Updated
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.
Updated
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.
Question time begins
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.
Updated
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.”
Updated
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.
Updated
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.
“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.
“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.”
PM Malcolm Turnbull, Treasurer Scott Morrison and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann at a press conference after their tax amendment bills passed in the senate @AmyRemeikis @murpharoo @GuardianAus #polticslive https://t.co/pIouYgYRZr pic.twitter.com/Xsx5OjFFt5
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) June 21, 2018
Updated
The Nationals would also like you to know they are happy with the tax bill passing.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tax cuts lead to higher wages, economic growth and more jobs while fulfilling the government’s commitment to helping families, small businesses and farmers.
Updated
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:
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.”
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.”
Malcolm Turnbull is up next:
It rewards and encourages enterprise, it encourages and enables aspiration. That is what this is all about. That is what is delivering a stronger economy. Our economic plan for a stronger economy depends on the hard work of Australians. It depends on them having the courage and the incentive and initiative to have a go and get ahead, to aspire, to earn more.
To aspire to realise their dreams. We do not deny that, we are not mystified by it, we want to enable it, and this tax reform plan does just that. It is fair, it is comprehensive, it is well thought out, it is a long-term plan. It is consistent with higher government revenues, to enable us to guarantee essential services.
“It is consistent with enabling us to bring the budget back into balance a year early, so that we live within our means. It enables us to do all the things government needs to do to support Australians, whether it is in health or education or national security or infrastructure.
“But above all, it says to Australian families, we believe in you. We believe in your aspirations. We want you to realise your dreams. We want you to keep more of the money you have earned. It is not the government’s. It is yours. And we want you to be able to realise your dreams and get ahead. This personal income tax plan is for you.
Updated
One Nation responded to Labor’s robocall with one of their own:
“Hi, this is Pauline Hanson. The Labor party are at it again. Telling lies. In the Senate today, I voted for battlers. Low and middle income earners to receive a tax cut. I did this because ordinary, everyday workers, including tradesmen, nurses, school teachers, police, fire and emergency workers, every hard-working Australian deserves to pay less tax. Times are tough and I hope you understand why I voted to support workers receiving tax cuts. Let’s be clear, this is a tax cut for workers, not for companies.
“Don’t accept Labor’s lies. The truth can always be found on my Facebook page, Pauline Hanson’s please explain. Thanks Australia, and let’s keep the bastards honest.”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson at a press conference after the tax amendments bills passed in the senate today @AmyRemeikis @murpharoo @GuardianAus #politicslive https://t.co/pIouYgYRZr pic.twitter.com/J5euKt9fSC
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) June 21, 2018
Updated
Pauline Hanson has accused a reporter of believing “Labor’s lies” about her voting record.
“You have been listening to Labor, haven’t you? You really do.”
Reporter: Tell me I’m wrong.
Hanson: You’re wrong. It’s about – about 75, 76%.
Georgiou: 68%. About 67%.
Hanson: So actually you have been listening to Labor. Labor’s lies again. I keep saying, Labor’ lies, do not go and listen to them.
Reporter: If we count it’s 75%.
Hanson: Whatever the percentage is, we take each legislation, we look at it closely, and we vote if it’s going to benefit the Australian people and vote ... based on its merit. If it’s right for the people and for the country.
“Now, let’s put this straight, right, it’s the government that puts up the legislation, not the opposition. So we are voting on government legislation. The opposition have not put up one bill in this parliament.
“So how can you? So where are you saying that we – because we voted with the government. Of course they’re putting up the legislation. And if there’s a change of government, next time around, I will be in the Senate. Then I’ll decide on the legislation that is put up by the Labor party and I will vote on that based on its merit. So, you know, this is sour grapes as far as I’m concerned.
“Because they tried to bully me in the parliament today and here we talk about kids being bullied in, you know, anyone that’s been bullied in the workforce, or at wherever, we don’t stand for it, but they think they can get away with it on the floor of parliament with me.
“I’ll stand my ground for what I truly believe. That’s what the people of this country want.”
Updated
A reader who just emailed Pauline Hanson’s office about multinational tax avoidance just received this response:
Thank you for your email regarding the tax cuts.
Senator Hanson has announced One Nation will NOT be supporting the corporate tax cuts which includes multinationals.
However, the debate this week centres around personal income tax cuts which is different legislation than the corporate tax cuts.
One Nation believes in providing tax relief to the low and middle income earners of this nation, that is why Senator Hanson and One Nation will support the personal income tax cuts as it will equate to at least a saving of $500 a year for low-income earners to help with the rising cost of living.
Updated
Pauline Hanson is unrepentant:
“I am not going to apologise to anyone for actually passing this”
As for whether she will get anything from the tax cuts:
Question: Why didn’t stand up and clarify your position today? You told the Senate yesterday that you weren’t going to benefit financially from these tax cuts?
Correct. Because who is to say I’mgoing to be in the Senate?”
Hanson also says she may end up voting for the corporate tax cuts:
I made it quite clear. I have stood my ground on this and I am not going to pass any further company tax cuts. If they come to me and say we’re going after the multinationals, we’re going to actually get - you know, heaven help us if we can get it, $100 billion out of it, then we’ll sit down and talk.”
Pauline Hanson, asked if she is the ‘queen of the Senate’ after helping the government get the bill through says:
Look, I’m going to take credit for this as well because I was one of the senators that actually has supported this. The 76 senators in that chamber. So we all played our part with this. I’m pleased with the part that One Nation has played in this to get this passed.
“I am so angry with the Labor Party who are nothing but liars, that’s putting out robocalls to people now, especially in the electorate of Longman saying we just supported the passage of corporate tax cuts. That is not the case. They could not lie straight in bed and that this...Absolute lies. If Bill Shorten wants to be the Prime Minister of this country, then start being truthful with the people instead of lying to them over what One Nation’s role in this has been. This is about their workers.”
More Hanson on why Labor ‘doesn’t get it’
Definitely not. Under Bill Shorten’s plan, Bill Shorten and the Labor Party, they just don’t get it. You know, they’re talking about the higher income earners of this country – they are forgetting about the battlers. They only wanted to support the first tax plan which is $928 and that’s over a four-year period only. That would have blown out the budget under the government’s budget plan, the $16 billion, under Labor you could almost double it.”
Updated
Pauline Hanson says she “has to say – this is a great day.”
“I am so pleased to be able to support the government ... to make this happen.
“I think Australians now who are struggling, those people on the lowest incomes, they can get some relief now and I am pleased to be part of this.”
She’s asked about Labor’s plan – which doubles the government’s low and middle income tax offset – and says “Labor just doesn’t get it”.
Hanson says she has not got anything from the government in exchange for her vote.
Updated
It is looking like the prime minister will also be speaking at 1.30.
Updated
Chris Bowen will speak at 1.30.
Updated
Michael Sukkar was on Sky News helping to lay out where the government is planning on taking its tax debate:
“The Labor party are fuelling their spending by hitting one group of tax base. Now Chris Bowen and Bill Shorten have run around for years now, saying we are going after the top end of town, and the billionaires and the big multinationals and the Apples and the Googles – but when it comes to the crunch, who are the Labor party going after? They are going after the retirees, low-income retirees.”
As we know, they are low-income retirees because they have minimised their income. It’s not necessarily pensioners – which is why the government has largely dropped the term, because it was too easy to disprove – but low-income retirees, who have low incomes because their tax has been reduced through franking credits and the like.
Updated
One Nation is first off the press conference blocks – Pauline Hanson will hold one at 1.15.
Updated
Well, someone is happy:
The Turnbull Gov has delivered income tax cuts for all Australian workers paying tax. In passing our Personal Income Tax Plan through the Parliament, the Gov has ensured Australians will be paying less tax, and be rewarded for their hard work both now and into the future. #auspol pic.twitter.com/GJKGCUEa6S
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) June 21, 2018
The IPA is not entirely happy with the tax plan passing – it doesn’t think it goes far enough. From its statement:
Free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs says the government has a long way to go in providing tax relief to Australian workers despite the modest income tax cuts, which passed the Senate today.
‘The modest reduction to the growth in taxes on Australian workers is preferable to the status quo,’ said IPA Research Fellow Daniel Wild.
‘It is misleading to call tax cuts handouts, as Labor has done. Cutting taxes means Australians will be keeping more of their hard-earned money.
‘The true cause of high taxes is high spending. The government must now substantially reduce government spending to deliver deep and permanent tax cuts.
‘It is disappointing the government didn’t pursue a more ambitious tax reform program that would have included deep cuts and changes to the composition of the tax system.
‘Australians are being badly let down by the political class. At the next election they will have the choice of high taxes under the Coalition or higher taxes under Labor,” said Mr Wild.
Updated
What the government, Centre Alliance, One Nation, Cory Bernardi, David Leyonhjelm, Fraser Anning and Brian Burston just passed:
From 2018-19:
Increasing the upper threshold for the 32.5% marginal tax rate from $87,000 to $90,000
– 3.6m for the first year, 6.4bn until 2028-29
From 2019-20:
Low and middle income tax offset of up to $530 for those earning up to $125,333
– 3.7bn in the first year, $15.9bn until 2028-29
Total cost for the first tranche $22.35bn
From 2022:
Increasing the upper threshold for the 32.5% marginal tax rate from $90,000 to $120,000
– $3.75bn in the first year, $36.5bn until 2028-29
Increasing the upper threshold for the 19% marginal tax rate from $37,000 to $41,000
– $4.95bn in the first year, $40.75bn until 2028-29
Increase the low income tax offset up to $645 for those earning under $66,668
– $100m in the first year, $2.75bn up to 2028-29
Total cost for the second tranche $80bn
From July 2024
Increasing the lower threshold for the 45% marginal tax rate from $180,001 to $200,001
– $1.35bn in the first year, $9.05bn until 2028-29
Scrapping the 37% tax rate – giving a flat tax rate of 32.5% for earners between $41,001 and $200,000
– $4.9bn in the first year, $32.550bn until 2028-29
Total cost to the budget $143.95bn
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Tax legislation passes in its entirety
The $144bn tax plan the government put forward in its budget has just passed the Senate, in its entirety.
37 to 33
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I wonder how Rebekha Sharkie, who is fighting to hold Mayo for Centre Alliance, feels about all of this?
Not happy, from what I was hearing this morning. But I haven’t been able to get on to her first hand this morning as yet. Probably because she is out, trying to hold her seat
Just for the record, this is the biggest tax reform plan the parliament has ever passed.
And it’s doing so after gagging the debate. Which the crossbenchers (except Tim Storer) voted to do.
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First we have another procedural vote.
The Senate is doing this as slowly as these tax cuts will come into existence.
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Penny Wong is now asking for party leaders be given five minutes to speak before the vote on the legislation is called on.
The first motion has just passed – 37 to 33. Now the Senate is voting on whether or not it should try and stick with the amendments – which got rid of the third tier of tax cuts, and also, accidentally, got rid of the tax rate from 2024 onwards.
No prizes for guessing what this answer will be.
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Pauline Hanson talks to senate leader Mathias Cormann as the tax bills return from the house this morning. @AmyRemeikis @murpharoo @GuardianAus #politicslive https://t.co/pIouYgYRZr pic.twitter.com/2PGhhCv59y
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) June 21, 2018
Senate to vote on tax legislation
Mathias Cormann has moved to vote on the legislation.
First he is voting to gag the debate, and then once that happens, he can call the motion to bring on the vote.
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Tim Storer:
The Senate is the house of review. Our job is to thoroughly scrutinise each and every bill brought before it. These motions moved by the government to limit debate on the personal income tax plan, the biggest tax cuts in Australia’s history, should not meet with majority support and it goes against the principles of accountability and transparency, which are of paramount importance. This was clearly the platform on which the Nick Xenophon Team ran at the last federal election.
It was the central part of their philosophy and I believe that Centre Alliance today should be abiding by that, by allowing the Senate – yesterday and today – to adequately discuss and debate these measures. They are very significant measures.
… They have significant implications for future debt, deficit considerations, services and they should not be taken lightly. That’s why I put forward to a revisal to the whole plan to pass stage 1 of the plan, which I saw as a reasonable and appropriate stage, providing tax relief to low and middle income-earners.
And to therefore look at further changes to tax relief when appropriate, given that the treasurer, the secretary of the Treasury himself noted that there are significant error bands in forward estimates beyond three or four more years further. So I did support yesterday the Senate to set aside stage 3 of the personal tax plan and that would have left $40 billion or so set aside against, you know, in the future, and should the economy and international economic circumstances make that round of tax cuts affordable, then we can do so, but that is in 2024, which is two elections away, six years away.
Then, with stage 2, that would cost $80 billion, twice as much as stage 3, and it is still two elections away until it is brought about. So some crossbenchers are suggesting that with economic circumstances these changes would be easily wound back, but that is not the lesson that we’ve learned from 2007 tax cuts, which proved unaffordable in the wake of the global financial crisis, but were locked in.
It’s made the task of returning the budget back to balance impossible for at least the last decade. The alternative that may come may be to slash services like health and education, and that was tried and it was proved unpalatable to the public and to ultimately the Liberal government.
The government presently is struggling to find the money to pay for the level of services the public has come to expect. It plays down the risks of enacting the entire package in one hit, even though Treasury itself acknowledges the error bands, as I’ve mentioned before.
The recent 24 hours has seen geopolitical trade tremors that may well pass, but there are – they’re a salutary reminder of just how quickly times can change and the Reserve Bank is clearly worried about the prospects of investment, financial markets are concerned a return to protectionism would mean less trade.
Either development would have a marked effect on the Australian economy and on revenue, making reducing debt and returning the budget back to balance even more difficult.
Cuts to education and health would be inevitable. Fewer teachers and nurses in South Australia and uncertainty about the infrastructure plans in terms of roads and bridges upon which the budget just passed. As the Greens have put forward that every dollar of tax cuts received by South Australia, the state would lose $1.40 for spending on essential services. That hardly sounds like a good deal.
As I’ve argued before, such an uncertain economic environment demands the Senate rethinks yesterday’s and today’s decisions regarding the pushing forward on the whole bill. And this is what Centre Alliance said they wanted yesterday in terms of removing stage 3. I do not believe we should vote for this bill.”
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Labor authorises robocall against Pauline Hanson in Longman
Labor have hit the ground running and have started a robocall to voters in Longman.
This is the transcript those voters are receiving right now:
Right now in Canberra Pauline Hanson plans to vote with Malcolm Turnbull to give another tax cut to the top end of town. She’s even giving herself a massive tax cut. But it’s not too late to stop her. Pauline is in Canberra right now, the final vote could happen at any minute. Press 1 to be connected directly to Pauline’s office to tell her yourself: stop selling Queenslanders out.
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Richard Di Natale is not allowed any more time to speak:
Look, whatever you think about this piece of legislation, I mean yesterday we were denied the opportunity through the committee stage to ask substantive questions. Today we’ve seen debate being gagged. We’ve seen – it’s the first time I’ve seen it since I’ve been in this place. A gag on a suspension. A gag on a suspension. Just disgraceful. And now we’ve been given the opportunity to speak for five minutes.”
The crux of his speech comes down to this:
This is one of the most significant pieces of legislation to ever pass through the Australian parliament. This is worth $140 bn. It fundamentally rewrites the fabric of Australian society.
We cannot continue to afford to invest in all of the foundations of a decent society – decent healthcare and education, infrastructure, increasing Newstart, protecting our environment, if we strip $140 bn of revenue in a prescription to turbocharge inequality here in Australia.
Let’s look at what the government’s, this is what the government’s already done. It’s taken $0.5 bn from [marine protection], over $300 m from the ABC, nearly $60 million in Legal Aid funding, freezing Medicare cost nearly $3 bn.
It’s cut family tax benefit supplements, 4,000 jobs from the ATO, jobs from Asic, jobs from the CSIRO, huge cuts to the environment department at a time when we’re losing biodiversity at a rate far greater than any other time on earth! R&D tax offsets, $600 m. Gone! Local grants, $900 m. Gone. Cuts to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. This government has presided over a litany of tax cuts. Can you imagine what happens if we strip another $140 bn of revenue from those essential services?
Can you imagine what we are going to be faced in the coming years when it comes to the cuts that we’ve already seen from this government?
... This is one of the most shameful, disgraceful days that I’ve seen in my time in this Senate. $140 bn ripped out of public revenue, taken out of our public hospitals, meaning people need to languish for longer on waiting lists, more upfront costs in public schools, infrastructure that desperately needs investment, isn’t going to get it and all because you want to ram this bill through without any scrutiny.
Penny Wong, and others within Labor ask for Di Natale to be given more time. They are denied.
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Penny Wong has a point of order – because Ian Macdonald interjected all through her speech. She asks for him to calm it down for Di Natale’s, or says she’ll ask for him to be dealt with under the standing orders.
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Richard Di Natale has now been given five minutes to speak. He complains – as did Penny Wong – because they had originally been promised 15 minutes.
Wong received an extension – Di Natale says he just wants his 15 minutes up front. He is denied:
What a disgraceful, shameful act. What a dark day for the Senate here in Australia. Look, regardless of what you think of this piece of legislation, we should be at least entitled to have an opportunity, firstly to interrogate it, to debate it.
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Some Mike Bowers shots from this morning:
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From Penny Wong’s speech:
“All of the debate and procedural – what do you call them? – straitjackets, that Senator Cormann has been engaging in has been because he doesn’t want to debate, he doesn’t want to debate what is unsustainable, and that is an argument that low and middle income-earners, low- and middle-income earners’ tax cuts, should be held hostage to tax cuts for high income-earners in 2024.
“Now, let’s be clear what Senator Hanson and others have done today. What she ought to know is that the tax cuts that she is now voting for by agreeing with this motion, agreeing with what’s before the chamber, will ensure that the people of Wentworth do very well and the people of Longman do very badly, do very badly.
“What you need to know is that in Longman, the number of people who are earning over $200,000 is 703.
“Guess how many in Wentworth? Over 10,000. Over 10,000. Well done, Senator Hanson. You’ve delivered to Point Piper. Well done, Senator Hanson, you’ve delivered to Malcolm Turnbull’s electorate.
“But bad luck, bad luck for the burghers of Longman, because you have ensured that tax cuts which benefit overwhelmingly high income-earners, people earning over $200,000 a year – well, I’ll take the interjection. He says ‘And Penny Wong’. I’m voting against it, mate. I’m voting against it. Why don’t you? Why don’t you? That’s a great interjection! That’s a great interjection!
“I want to make this point – I make this point. What we have seen over these last 24 hours is a government’s desperate strategy, a government desperate to try and hold low- and middle-income earners tax cuts, which they deserve, hostage to high income-earners tax cuts.
“Senator Patrick, more fool you that you copped it. You came in this morning and said you want stage 3 out and then voted for every single stage over a procedural straitjacket to ensure that that amendment could not be insisted on and furthermore could not even be debated? I mean what sort of senator does that? At least have the courage of your convictions. Stand up and debate it. Now, what you’ve done is ensure they don’t even have to debate an amendment that you supported 24 hours ago! What sort of senator does that, Senator Patrick?
“What is extraordinary about this, what is extraordinary about this is that if all that we would have needed to ensure that the tax cut for low income-earners proceeded and the tax cuts in stage 3, that overwhelmingly benefitted those above $200,000, would have been the same tied vote that we had yesterday.
“If Senator Patrick and Senator Griff had simply had the courage of their convictions, if Senator Hanson had decided to deliver to Longman rather than Wentworth, that’s all we would have needed to ensure that Mr Turnbull’s political strategy of holding tax cuts for low income and middle-income Australians hostage to high income-earners could not have been delivered.
“But instead this Senate, Centre Alliance and Senator Hanson have fallen over themselves to deliver to high-income Australia and to Malcolm Turnbull’s political strategy. That is all they have done. I urge the Senate not to support the motion from Senator Cormann.
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Wait – we are back in the Senate.
It has voted to disrupt the water bill debate, so Penny Wong can speak.
Basically, it looks like those who are against the legislation are trying everything they can to delay the vote for as long as possible.
Wong, who was allowed five minutes to speak, has just been given another 10 minutes.
Her reaction:
“We’re all supposed to be grateful that they’re doling out five minutes here, 10 minutes there, oh! We’re supposed to say thank you Mathias for allowing senators elected to this place who sit at this table to actually debate it. Tell me, did Senator Patrick have a crisis of confidence?”
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That motion Tony Burke put forward was not accepted.
So here is what Chris Bowen thinks, as per his statement:
Last night, in an act of gross incompetence, the Turnbull government teamed up with Senator Pauline Hanson’s One Nation to vote to support a bill which abolished all income tax rates from 2024.
This is just the latest act from a government consumed by chaos and incompetence, which has outsourced all economic policy to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
For years Pauline Hanson has advocated flat tax and last night the government adopted this policy and set the rate at zero.
The Turnbull government’s latest solution to bracket creep is to abolish every income tax bracket.
The bill supported at the third reading stage in the Senate by the government and One Nation would open up a budget black hole of $240 bn every single year once implemented.
The Turnbull government has gone from a $140 bn three-stage income tax cut plan to a $240 bn a year income tax cut plan … no wonder the Turnbull government or One Nation have no concern for gross debt remaining above half a trillion dollars.
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The dog ate my tax rates
Now that there is a chance to catch my breath, let’s have a look at what just happened.
Yesterday, when the Senate knocked out stage three of the tax plan, they also knocked out specifying what the tax rate would be from 2024. Labor had an amendment ready to go to fix that but the government moved to gag debate before they could.
So, when the bill left the Senate last night, there were no tax rates beyond 2024. This is the legislation which went to the house this morning.
It’s a slight issue (insert sarcasm mark) but it will be fixed by the end of the day. One can hope.
Here is the motion that Tony Burke put forward addressing that issue:
That the House:
1. notes that:
a. gross debt has grown to a record half a trillion dollars under this government;
b. last night, in act of gross incompetence this government teamed up with Senator Pauline Hanson’s One Nation to vote to support a bill which abolished all income tax rates from 2024;
c. this is just the latest act from a government consumed by chaos and incompetence, which has outsourced all economic policy to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation;
d. for years One Nation has advocated flat tax, last night the government adopted this policy and set the rate at zero;
e. the government has also dealt with bracket creep by abolishing every tax bracket; and
f. the bill which was supported at the third reading stage by the government and One Nation will open up a budget black hole of $240 billion every single year once implemented; and
2. condemns this government for its gross economic incompetence.
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Doug Cameron on Pauline Hanson this morning:
This will be a pyrrhic victory for the government if it goes through, it will be a pyrrhic victory for Pauline Hanson because everyone out there under a certain amount of money knows they are not being benefitted by this tax cut.
This is really benefitting those in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Those that earn big money are going to pocket about $7,000 and what we are seeing now is that many workers out there battling day in day out trying to earn a quid in the retail sector and in the entertainment sector are going to end up having to beg for tips to make a living.
This is the Americanisation of the Australian economy and I just think it’s ridiculous. We were always the people of the fair go in Australia, we are not the fair go anymore after this ridiculous decision in the Senate last night.
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Natalie Joyce, Barnaby Joyce’s estranged wife, has given an (unpaid) interview with Women’s Weekly for its rural women edition.
In more quotes released today, she says when she became aware of Joyce’s affair with Vikki Campion.
After 24 years, the state of Natalie Joyce’s marriage came down to a look. Or, as her husband Barnaby sprinted for his plane without a backward glance, the absence of one. “I stood there paralysed, my stomach wrenched in a million knots, and I knew then the marriage was all but over,” Natalie, 48, tells her friend, journalist Lizzie Wilson, for the Weekly’s exclusive interview.
Natalie is recalling the day in July last year at Sydney airport when, after what would be their last overseas trip together as Australia’s deputy prime ministerial couple, the Joyce’s caught their respective flights – Natalie back to Tamworth and their four daughters; Barnaby to Canberra and his media adviser, Vikki Campion. But, in hindsight, Natalie now realises Vikki was set on insinuating herself into the Joyce family months before.
“She wanted my life from the get-go,” says Natalie. “This was a whole lot more than a fleeting office romance.”
At their first meeting in 2016 at the Joyces’ family home, Natalie was struck by Vikki’s icy demeanour. “She was so cold,” Natalie recalls. A few months later Natalie’s intuition, honed by decades of marriage, suspected something between her 50-year-old husband and his 33-year-old staffer.
“After watching them at the Nationals Christmas party, I had a feeling they were having an affair,” Natalie tells the Weekly. “As it turned out their tawdry union was the worst kept secret in Canberra.”
But Natalie wasn’t ready to surrender. As Barnaby drifted away from his family and finally stopped coming home, Natalie took action. Told her husband and his mistress were at his local electorate office in Tamworth last March, Natalie jumped in the car and drove into town, headlong into a confrontation with her husband and his mistress.
“I was very measured,” says Natalie of that day, “I didn’t raise my voice. She and Barney were smoking outside. He bolted when he saw me. I turned to her and said, ‘My husband is out of bounds, off-limits, he’s a married man with four children’ and then I called her a home-wrecking wh---. It was not one of my finer moments but, looking back, I’m proud I stood up to her.”
As their marriage crumbled and her husband’s career went into free-fall, Natalie watched on in disbelief. And then she found out that Vikki was carrying Barnaby’s baby. An emotionally charged meeting at the Joyce family home ensued. “I asked him to come home,” she recalls. “He said, ‘I can’t, she’s pregnant and I have to be there for my son.’ He always wanted a boy and, while the girls really are the epicentre of his universe, we had no chance: she was giving him a son.”
In February this year the Weekly was with Natalie Joyce when she heard the news that Barnaby had resigned as leader of the National party, and deputy leader of Australia.
Wiping away a tear, Natalie ended the phone call and said, “He’s finished”. But there was more humiliation to come. The birth of Barnaby and Vikki’s son followed in April and when the baby’s name, Sebastian, was revealed, “It felt like another malicious taunt in a very long line of appalling behaviour,” says Natalie. Had they ever had a son, Sebastian had always been number one on Barnaby and Natalie’s list of favourite boys’ names.
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A second attempt to censure Pauline Hanson in the Senate has failed, with the crossbench, other than Tim Storer, voting to shut it down.
The house is dividing on Tony Burke’s motion to suspend standing orders – but we all know the composition of the chamber and how that will end.
The legislation is back with the Senate.
The Senate has moved on to debating the water bill.
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The Senate, including the crossbench, voted against Penny Wong’s motion to suspend standing orders, in order to put forward her motion to restart the debate.
Capiche?
Basically, the crossbench and government voted against wanting to continue the debate on this legislation – or even attempting to have the debate gag lifted.
The government is now attempting to gag Sarah Hanson-Young’s motion to censure Pauline Hanson.
Hanson has not yet corrected her claim.
The vote was just held and Derryn Hinch and Centre Alliance voted with the government to gag the debate – so Hanson will not be forced to correct the record.
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While Tony Burke is fighting to continue debate on the tax legislation before sending it back in the house, Penny Wong and Labor are working to get debate started again in the Senate.
Scott Morrison has circulated the government’s reasons for rejecting the amended bill:
Reasons of the House of Representatives for disagreeing to the amendments of the Senate
Senate Amendments (1, 2 and 3)
The amendments proposed by the Senate remove step three of the Personal Income Tax Plan. Step three of the Personal Income Tax Plan simplifies and flattens the tax system by abolishing the 37 per cent tax bracket entirely, reducing the number of tax brackets from five to four.
The Plan is a package that gives certainty to Australian families that they will keep more of what they earn in the future. It comprises three steps.
Step 1, prioritises low and middle income earners by providing tax relief of up to $530 to help with cost of living pressures.
Step 2, protects what Australians earn from bracket creep, ensuring that a pay rise, extra overtime or working more hours do not get eaten up by higher tax rates.
Step 3, by simplifying and flattening the tax system, ensures that, by 2024-25, some 94 per cent of taxpayers will face a marginal tax rate no higher than 32.5 per cent based on projections.
High income earners will continue to pay their fair share with the tax system remaining progressive under the Personal Income Tax Plan. For example, a person on $200,000 would pay around 13 times more tax than a person on $41,000.
In 2015-16, the top 20 per cent of taxpayers paid around 61 per cent of all personal income tax. Under the Personal Income Tax Plan, this cohort is projected to continue to contribute a broadly similar share in 2024-25.
In 2015-16 those on the top tax bracket paid 30.3 per cent of all personal income tax collected. Under the plan those on the top tax bracket will pay around 36 per cent of all personal income tax collected in 2024-25.
The Personal Income Tax Plan delivers lower, fairer and simpler taxes to all taxpayers.
Accordingly, the House of Representatives does not accept these amendments.
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Sarah Hanson-Young is attempting to have the Senate censure Pauline Hanson for misleading the Senate – over this comment yesterday, where Hanson said she won’t be receiving a tax cut (she will – just over $11,800, over her term -from 2024/25 there is an annual reduction of $7225, for the four years between 2018/19-2022 you get $540, and then 2023/2024 you get $4050 on her wage):
Senator Hanson-Young read the bill and spoke on it, but unfortunately she did not understand it. It’s quite funny when the senator makes comments about me. She said that I’m getting a tax cut. No, I’m not. I’m on the same wage as Senator Hanson-Young. The tax cuts are going to be up to $200,000. I’m a very fortunate Australian to be earning more than $200,000. I am paying tax of 45c in the dollar on that. I’m not getting tax relief. To make that comment is to mislead this parliament. I don’t think she understands it. If she’s really worried about pensioners and the battlers and everyone out there, then I suggest that she flies economy class, like I do, instead of sitting up the front of the plane, at more cost to taxpayers, or taking her child on a taxpayer funded whale-watch or the overseas trips.
Hanson-Young:
We saw yesterday in this place, Senator Hanson, the leader of One Nation, come into here and try and tell this place and the Australian people that she would not be getting a dollar from the tax cut bill that is passing through this place and the other place today.
Senator Hanson misled the Australian parliament, she misled the Australian people, because we know that what this tax cut bill does is give her and in every other person in this place a massive tax cut. Upwards of $11,000 worth of tax cuts. And for Senator Hanson, who prides herself on being the voice of the battler, the people’s Pauline, she misled the Australian people and misled this Senate. She said she will not financially benefit, when indeed she does, and she benefits more than most other Australians. The majority of Australians get very little under this tax cut, very little, but Senator Pauline Hanson, leader of One Nation, gets a whopping $11,815 worth of a tax cut, and yet she came into this place and she denied it.
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Greg Jericho has written on who exactly will benefit the most – but I think you already know who wins out of this $144bn package:
The tax cut debate, as expected, has led to an absolute mountain of manure designed to mislead about who is going to benefit. Data on personal incomes out this week from the ABS, drawing on the 2015-16 ATO tax statistics, once again delivers a nice shot of reality to the debate. The biggest beneficiaries of the tax cuts are high-income earners, with median-income earners – especially women – largely ignored.
The government would have you believe the main beneficiaries of the tax cuts are true-blue, dinky-die, aspirational Aussie battlers, while the opposition would have you think it is merchant bankers from Vaucluse.
As I have previously related, certainly merchant bankers and their ilk are the ones who are going to benefit the most. While stage one of the tax cuts – lifting the low-income tax offset – benefits low- and median-income earners, stages two and especially three are focused mainly on benefiting those who earn more than $90,000 and, even more so, those who earn more than $120,000.
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Graham Perrett had a few things to say about a certain Queensland senator this morning:
Senator Pauline Hanson and the One Nation political party need to pay back every dollar that they’ve received from the votes of battlers in Queensland.
Last night, Senator Hanson voted herself a tax cut and ignored the people of Queensland who actually put her into office. For 22 years Senator Hanson’s been on the public purse, receiving taxpayer money because of votes. And last night she completely ignored those Queenslanders.
Under Labor, under our tax plan, 1.9 million Queenslanders will be better off. Under Bill Shorten’s plan, we do not forget the battlers.
We saw One Nation last night showed their true Tory colours and forget Queenslanders when voting for the tax plan. It’s a shame. It’s a disgrace.
Tony Burke is now attempting to move an amendment to the motion to return to the bill to the Senate, acknowledging that the government made a deal with One Nation to get the legislation through – among other criticisms – it hasn’t been moved as yet, but we all know where it is going to end up.
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While the house votes to send the amended tax package back to the Senate, Penny Wong is in the red chamber attempting to move a motion to force a debate on the tax package.
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Just in case you missed it yesterday, Tony Abbott has decided to openly go to war with his government over its energy policy.
Obviously, he has been vocal with his criticisms for some time. But just a couple of weeks after warning the prime minister about anarchy if Craig Kelly gets rolled at this upcoming preselection (which we are told still looks like happening), he is now openly bitching about party-room meetings and sounding the horn for the backbench to rise up.
This is what he said to Sydney radio 2GB last night about whether he would cross the floor over the Neg:
I hope it is not going to come to that. I really hope it is not going to come to that.
But I do think the government, the executive government, needs to understand that you can’t take the party room for granted. And I think there has been a bit of that, a bit of taking the party room for granted.
For instance, the prime minister has developed this practice of discussing legislation at ENORMOUS length, every party-room meeting, before we actually get to backbenchers’ questions and comments.
Now, this is completely unprecedented. When John Howard was the leader, when I was the leader, Malcolm Turnbull was the leader last time round, when Brendan Nelson was the leader, we always went straight from the leadership statement to the backbench questions and comments.
But this has almost never happened under the current prime ministership.
... It is a fundamental failure of process and it is stifling the proper debate that we should be able to have inside our party room.
And the other point I should make – obviously, because it has to, the government spends an enormous amount of time negotiating with the crossbench. I reckon the government needs to spend a bit more time talking to the backbench.
Yes, the crossbench senators are important – don’t forget the backbench – because you are only in government because you have a backbench that is prepared to support your legislation.
I hope it doesn’t come to questions of crossing the floor, I really do. It is not something that any Liberal would like to do. But, but, I don’t think we can be expected to support a policy that will continue to drive prices up, and which will deny our industries the affordable 24/7 power for jobs to continue.
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The other thing to remember with these tax cuts, is the first tier – a maximum of $530 in a tax offset rebate for those who earn under $125,333 – doesn’t come in until 1 July 2019.
There will be an election before then. So no one will get anything before the election, and the government will be telling you to vote for them, based on passing something in this term, which you won’t get until the next term.
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The house is voting to send the income tax bill back to the Senate.
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Wayne Swan had a chat to Sky News this morning, calling bupkis on the idea that a flat rate tax – the third tier of the government’s income tax plan – will benefit those looking to “aspire” to a higher wage:
It’s a recipe for inequality, it makes the tax system far more unfair, and what it does is reduce the capacity to give tax cuts to the majority of the workforce, while creating the situation where there are further cuts to health and education because they are basically cutting away at the tax base.
… Trickle down economics doesn’t make sense, greater inequality doesn’t make sense, because greater inequality in Australia, giving more to the people at the top, hollowing out the middle class and creating armies of working poor, is a handbrake on growth and it poisons our society.
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Things got a little messy in the Senate last night.
Penny Wong and Labor, and the Greens, as well as Tim Storer were FURIOUS the vote was occuring last night without debate.
The government won the motion to guillotine the debate, which means they voted through the amended package without continuing the debate and sent the bill back to the house.
Malcolm Turnbull said the government would send the package straight back to the Senate, rejecting its amendments. There will be no more debate – it will go to the vote, and based on the numbers as we know them, it will pass.
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Rex Patrick was on Radio National this morning explaining why Centre Alliance was going to let the whole income tax package go through, despite having voted to split it yesterday:
Yes, we are. We’ve gone on record and said that. We’re interested in making sure that low- to middle-income earners reap the benefits of our much stronger economic position. The dilemma for us is that if we were to knock out all of the tax package, then no one gets any benefit.
“The downside, if we do vote for all three, is that of course the high-income earners get a tax break, but we’ve got to remember that that doesn’t occur until 2024, and indeed the Labor party have said they are going to repeal that if they were to gain power.
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Amanda Stoker, who replaced George Brandis, delivered her first speech just before the Senate closed overnight.
Here is some of what she had to say:
We need to be prepared to take the difficult case for increased productivity to the community, which offsets the appeal of raising minimum wages and penalty rates, because they both reduce job opportunities for those most in need. I understand that telling lower paid workers they will take home more money today is popular; it’s easy.
But we need to be honest enough to say frankly that each time we do, we deny a job to another person desperately in need of one. The unions rail against casualisation or layoffs, but it is the direct product of the policies for which they advocate.
We must also be honest enough to say that it is the productivity gains that will sustainably deliver real wage growth for those who need it most. We need to introduce competition to workplace representation. Teachers, nurses and trades usually join unions to access insurance and representative services, not to gain a political affiliation.
They don’t trust union representation in a bargaining process, where the unions arrange kickbacks for themselves and forget or sell out the needs of the workers.
A simple way to reduce these abuses of member interests is to end union monopolies. Many workers value workplace representation, but they don’t want politicised workplace representation. Let the market give them the choice.
It is the height of hypocrisy that the Left in this country rails against big business but supports the continued tax-free status of unions, which have become multimillion-dollar businesses with sophisticated commercial operations. It is pure irony that those selling the socialist dream have taken so well to capitalism.
When a union is selling insurance, investing, selling education services and running all manner of start-ups, they should be taxed like the business they are.
We owe the Australian taxpayer no less. And we must never give up on the principle that government should provide the lightest possible burden on the entrepreneurial spirit of Australians.We should test every piece of legislation, every regulation against the standards of necessity and efficacy until red tape and green tape no longer hold back the projects needed for Queensland and Australia to grow and prosper.
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Good morning
Well, the government officially have the numbers.
In the least surprising news since One Nation lost another senator, Pauline Hanson has confirmed she is on board with the government’s entire income tax plan.
That gives Mathias Cormann the numbers he needs to get the whole kit and caboodle through the Senate. Centre Alliance, after voting yesterday to remove the third tier – which benefits high income earners – has confirmed it will vote through the whole package when it returns to the Senate later today.
Here is why Hanson said she is giving her support (hint – it’s Labor’s fault):
“[Labor] are talking about the big end of town, you know the millionaires as the Greens are saying, they’re getting these tax cuts, do you really think those on $200,000, you know and they’re making more than that, a $7,000 tax cut is going to make a big difference to them?” she said.
“It’s not. It’s all about the people below that income, they need a helping hand.”
Labor has confirmed it will repeal the parts of the tax bill it doesn’t like if it gets into government.
But for now, it is all done but for the final vote.
Everyone is out and about this morning, so we’ll get straight into it – Mike Bowers caught the vote last night, so I’ll bring you what he saw. Amanda Stoker cried as she was sworn into the Senate – I’ll bring you some of her speech.
You can find Sir Mike at @mpbowers and @mikepbowers and me at @amyremeikis. You might also see us on the instagram story at @pyjamapolitics, where we (when we have time) throw up some of our day.
Does everyone have their morning pick-me-up?
Let’s get into it.
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