Topics: Labor’s broken promise on stage three tax cuts

E&OE

JAYNIE SEAL:

Let's bring in live the Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor, thank you so much for joining us. We know that you have been vocal over the last day or so, once we found out this announcement. So what would you like to tell our viewers on these decisions of the stage three tax cuts?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, thanks for having me, Jaynie. And I would say first and foremost, this is an egregious betrayal of the Australian people. The Prime Minister and Treasurer lied to the Australian people over 100 times by saying they were committed to these tax cuts. They've gone to two elections. And the Prime Minister and Treasurer have both voted for these tax cuts. So there's many Australians out there who are working on the basis that they're proceeding. And now we learn they are not. And it is clear now that over 100 times, we were lied to. Now these tax cuts are enormously important to give aspirational Australians, those who are working hard to get ahead, the certainty they need to know that they can keep 70 cents in the dollar across the broad range of tax brackets they might encounter. At least 70 cents in the dollar. And that's crucially important to grow the economy and to bring inflation under control. You've got to reward aspiration, you've got to provide incentives for people to invest to take risks to work hard. That's how you get out of an inflation crisis, a cost of living crisis. But that's not something Labor understands. Now they used to under Hawke and Keating government - they were important in getting us out of the last inflation crisis. And they understood aspiration. But this Prime Minister and Treasurer, they've declared war on aspiration. They've decided that having tried to divide the country on the referendum last year based on race, now they're going to try and divide the country based on class. And that's a very sad day for Australia when we start going down that path.

JAYNIE SEAL:

How do you think his political future is going to look like once this has really been formally announced?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, it's a good question Jaynie. He's clearly concerned about his political future. I mean, all we've had from Labor since Christmas, since New Year, is chaos and dysfunction. In fact, we were getting that before, and it's clear Anthony Albanese's seen the focus groups and they don't look good. And so he's decided to find a political fix. But we know what the real fix is to a cost of living crisis. We know what the real fix is - it's not war on aspiration. It's a back to basics economic agenda. It's control your spending, make sure you've got a Flexible Industrial Relations system where workers and employers can sit down together and make their workplaces more productive. It's an environment where competition policy actually encourages competition, doesn't just look after your mates. It's an environment where you make sure your immigration policy is in line with your housing supply. And of course, the only thing driving our economy right now is immigration. You take that away, the economy is going backwards and for individuals, the economy's going backwards. So that back to basics economic agenda, which the Hawke and Keating government pursued. And of course Howard and Costello very much so as well, there's a consensus in Australia around that, it's clearly gone. And we are in a new era of class warfare, a war on aspiration, a war on hardworking Australians who want to get ahead.

JAYNIE SEAL:

All right, and we do have to quickly wrap it up, but Albanese has asked all Labor pollies to Canberra early to discuss cost of living. It's costing close to 500,000 to get them there. A good decision do you think?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

I mean, it's just more waste. I mean, we saw $450 million wasted on a failed referendum last year and then Albanese jumps on a plane every time he possibly can. I mean, you know, this guy's happy to waste money. But people are going to pay for it with taxes. We've seen a 27% increase in personal income taxes being paid by Australians over the last 18 month but we've clearly got a Prime Minister who's in panic mode. And that's why we're seeing this chaos and dysfunction, and why we're seeing an egregious betrayal of the Australian people with the Prime Minister and the Treasurer having lied to us all over 100 times.

JAYNIE SEAL:

All right, we're gonna have to cut this short because we're going live to the Prime Minister but Angus Taylor Shadow Treasurer thanks so much for your time.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Thanks for having me, Jaynie.

ENDS.