Bill Shorten has made a string of big promises in his Budget reply speech

LABOR will offer tax relief of up to $928 a year for 10 million Australians, Bill Shorten has declared in his official reply to the budget tonight. Read the rundown of his speech.

LABOR will offer tax relief of up to $928 a year — or about $18 a week — for 10 million Australians, Bill Shorten has declared in his official reply to Scott Morrison’s budget tonight.

The Opposition leader’s pre-election tax relief announcement is even more generous than the Turnbull Government’s offer of about $530 a year or $10 a week for 10 million Australians.

It’s a pledge that could tip voters in favour of Labor at five upcoming by-elections triggered by the mass resignations of four MPs in the latest twist in the citizenship fiasco yesterday.

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Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten delivers his Budget reply speech 2018 in the House of Representatives Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Mr Shorten was under fire from senior Turnbull Government ministers today over his “rolled gold” promise that no Labor MPs had dual citizenship issues after four of his MPs lost their seats or resigned yesterday.

Tonight, he hit back with a Budget reply speech that declared Labor would offer a “fair go” for Australians.

“After years of flat wages, rising power bills and increasing health costs, it’s time for a fair-dinkum tax cut for middle class and working class Australians,” he told Parliament.

“I’ve already said Labor will support the government’s modest tax cuts starting 1 July this year.

“And tonight, I announce a Labor Government will go further and do better on tax cuts for working and middle income Australians.

Shorten gave his Budget in reply speech to the Parliament in the House of Representatives. His family, Chloe Shorten with Georgette, Clementine and Rupert were in the chamber for the speech. Picture: Gary Ramage

“We will support the government’s tax cut this year — and in our first budget, we will deliver a bigger and better tax cut for 10 million working Australians — almost double.

“This is my pledge to 10 million working Australians. Under Labor, you will pay less income tax because I think you are more important than multinationals, banks and big business.”

Labor could afford to offer more generous tax cuts because it would not implement a massive cut to the corporate tax rate, Mr Shorten said, claiming the government’s cut would be an $80 billion “discredited giveaway to the top end of town”.

It would also be affordable because of Labor’s “hard” choices on budget repair which include reforming negative gearing and capital gains, cracking-down on tax avoidance by eliminating income-splitting in trusts and ending “unsustainable” tax credits for people who pay no income tax.

“Labor’s economic reforms have put us in a much stronger position to cope with international uncertainty, over the decade,” he said.

“We can pay down national debt, faster — because we’re not giving $80 billion to multinationals — and because we’ve made the tough decisions.”

Bill Shorten’s dishonesty is really quite breathtaking. He was one of the strongest advocates of tax cuts for all business as it creates jobs and leads to higher wages. Now he keeps deliberately lying about them as he did about #MediScare #ShiftyBill #BudgetReply18

— Mathias Cormann (@MathiasCormann) May 10, 2018

Mr Shorten declared Australians were suspicious of Treasurer Scott Morrison’s tax relief package.

“And, frankly, Australians are also entitled to be pretty suspicious of this whole thing,” he said.

“To wonder if this ‘come and talk to me after two elections’ plan, this promise on the never-never, will ever happen.

“My team and I are ready to vote for tax cuts for working families.

“And we will not allow the Prime Minister to threaten to block tax cuts for 10 million Aussies, unless the parliament writes a cheque for the wealthiest.”

Shorten also declared Labor would give schools a massive $17 billion funding boost on top of the $23 billion the Coalition has already committed over the next decade.

Other commitments in his speech included an extra $2.8 billion for hospitals, establishing a National Integrity Commission to improve accountability in politics and public life and $25 million to create a special taskforce inside the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecution to ensure justice for people “who have been ripped off by the banks”.

Originally published as Bill Shorten has made a string of big promises in his Budget reply speech