A coal-fired power station and water security are higher priorities, One Nation says
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| Pauline Hanson said it was important to put other issues before tax cuts |
Finance minister Mathias Cormann has turned the screws on Labor to support the Coalition’s full income tax cut package, as Pauline Hanson says her Senate team is “not sold” on the change.
Arguing that the Senate needed to “respect the verdict” of Australian voters at the election and pass the government’s three-stage $158bn tax cut plan, Cormann called on Labor leader Anthony Albanese to back the changes which are being resisted by the crossbench.
“Will he just persist with Labor’s failed politics of envy, which was so comprehensively rejected by the Australian people at the last election, by standing in the way of the income tax relief that Australians voted for? Or will he show the Australian people that he has learned and listened by embracing the plan that we took to the election and Australians supported?” Cormann said on Monday.
“We took a plan to the election, the Australian people voted for income tax relief for all hardworking Australians, it is incumbent on the Senate, all parties of the Senate, to respect the verdict of the Australian people at the last election.”
Saying his “door was always open” to crossbench senators who have raised doubts about the plan, Cormann said he would not give a running commentary on the negotiations.
The government has 35 spots in the Senate. It needs 39 to pass legislation.
The Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick has offered the Coalition a lifeline, suggesting that the minor party “would love to give hardworking Australians a tax cut” if it was confident income tax rebates would not cause cuts to services down the line.
If the Coalition can persuade the Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi to pass the package, then it will need the support of the returning Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie to support the package if Labor and One Nation refuse to pass it in the way the government presents it.
Hanson said she will not support the Morrison government’s entire tax cut package “at this stage” because she thinks there are other more important priorities.
The One Nation leader told the Nine Network on Monday: “I think there is more important issues out there that are of concern to the Australian people.
“I want to see a coal-fired power station built in Australia to reduce the electricity prices and I want to see the Bradfield scheme to ensure water security in Australia.”
Hanson said those initiatives would “bring employment to Australia, water security, cheaper electricity, keep our industries manufacturing in the country”.
She also said it was important “to the people” to have a royal commission into family law and child support: “Men are suiciding daily and women have been murdered.
“Yet the government’s reluctant to do anything about it. Tax cuts – no. I think it is important to get the other things on the agenda first and foremost.”
The Morrison government has declared parliament must pass the tax cut package as a whole when it resumes in July to deliver an increase in spending power to consumers that will help boost the flagging economy. In an interview with Guardian Australia, the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, said the package “must be supported in its entirety and as a priority”.
Labor looks likely to support stages one and two of the package, but has thus far balked at stage three, scheduled to begin in 2024-25, which benefits high-income earners. Labor’s new Treasury spokesman, Jim Chalmers, has indicated he is prepared to discuss bringing forward stage two of the package as an economic stimulus measure given that economic growth is tepid.
The Australia Institute’s senior economist, Matt Grudoff, has put the cost of the third tranche of the $158bn income tax package at $33bn over five years, for those earning $180,000, as part of a new distributional analysis, which also shows those earning more than $200,000 will receive a $26bn benefit over the same timeframe.
The government has 35 spots in the Senate. It needs 39 to pass legislation.
The Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick has offered the Coalition a lifeline, suggesting that the minor party “would love to give hard-working Australians a tax cut” if it was confident income tax rebates would not cause cuts to services down the line.
If the Coalition can persuade the Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi to pass the package, then it will need the support of the returning Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie to support the package if Labor and One Nation refuse to pass it in the way the government presents it.
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