PoliticsNow: Senate passes Turnbull’s income tax cuts
PoliticsNow: Turnbull hails the tax bill passing, as Labor MPs ask why the government ‘teamed up with One Nation to give themselves a tax cut’.
- Senate passes income tax cuts
- Labor robocall targets Hanson
- Shanahan: big win for PM
- Income tax changes explained
That’s where we will leave PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live blog from Parliament House in Canberra. Malcolm Turnbull’s $144 billion income tax cut will become law after the Senate passed the legislation unamended.
4pm Turnbull: partyroom will have say on NEG
Malcolm Turnbull insists the Coalition partyroom will get a chance to weigh in on a proposed new energy policy after it has been signed off by the states and territories.
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg is taking the national energy guarantee to the states for their agreement, but former prime minister Tony Abbott wants MPs to have a say on the final deal in the partyroom before it goes to parliament.
“Any legislation that is required relating to the national energy guarantee will come to the party room in the usual way,” Mr Turnbull told reporters this afternoon.
The policy does not subsidise any particular form of generation, while requiring generators to deliver affordable and reliable power that meets emissions targets.
Cabinet minister Peter Dutton is confident his conservative colleagues will eventually fall into line with the government’s energy policy. Mr Abbott threatened to vote against his own government to sink the national energy guarantee.
AAP
Greg Brown 3.25pm Hanson ‘doing Libs’ bidding’
Bill Shorten makes a speech to parliament after question time railing against Malcolm Turnbull and “his allies” One Nation for passing the $144 billion income tax package.
The Opposition Leader said Pauline Hanson was “doing the bidding” of the Liberal Party, warning he would remind One Nation of this from now until the next election.
Mr Shorten said the Prime Minister’s tax plan was economically irresponsible, as well as unfair.
“This government are so proud of what they have done but they have not explained where the money is coming from,” Mr Shorten told the House.
“What they have done today is put $140 billion on the nations credit card with no plan to pay for it at all.”
He said Labor would provide “bigger, better and fairer tax cuts” if it wins power.
He added it was “not class war” to demand bigger tax cuts for the majority of workers and more funding for school and hospitals.
Greg Brown 3.07pm QT carries on
The division to silence Health Minister Greg Hunt failed by a vote of 61 to 75.
He was brief with the rest of his answer: “If you can’t manage the economy you can’t manage health, and Labor will never be able to manage the economy”.
Greg Brown 3.03pm Gag motion against Hunt
Manager of opposition business Tony Burke moves a motion to request Health Minister Greg Hunt no longer be heard, after he said the government’s strong economic record was helping research to combat motor neurone disease.
“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 in question time for a very long time,” Burke says.
The house goes to a division; the motion is defeated.
Greg Brown 2.55pm Surgeon’s cut ‘16 times bigger’
Labor’s Ged Kearney asks Malcolm Turnbull to confirm a surgeon on $200,000 a year would get a tax cut 16 times bigger than a nurse earning $40,000, despite only earning five times more money.
“How is that fair? Or is the Prime Minister telling nurses to just get a better job?”
Scott Morrison takes the question, saying the 4 per cent of people on the highest income tax brackets pay 30 per cent of income tax.
“And at the end of the tax plan they will account for 36 per cent of the tax paid,” the Treasurer says.
“What the Labor Party doesn’t understand is you always run out of other people’s money when you keep taxing them more and more and more and more.
“What our plan does is fair, what our plan does is understand that all Australians who work and pay tax, work hard. Not some more than others.”
Greg Brown 2.50pm MPs marooned
Speaker Tony Smith forces two Queensland MPs, Michelle Landry and Cathy O’Toole, to take off their scarfs supporting the Maroons State of Origin team.
He promises there is no malice in the request.
“I am a Victorian fellow don’t take it personally,” Smith says.
Greg Brown 2.40pm Cuts ‘to cost $25bn a year’
Labor’s Chris Bowen says stage three of the government’s income tax cuts and the proposed big business tax cuts will cost the budget $25 billion a year.
Bowen goes onto ask: “How is it fair that the government is giving $25 billion every single year to business and the top 20 per cent of income earners while it is cutting billions from schools and hospitals?”
Malcolm Turnbull says the government is spending more on hospitals and schools every year, accusing Labor of lying.
“Funding is higher than ever. Why can we do that? Because we have a strong economy,” he says. “A stronger economy enables governments to deliver the essential services that Australians need.”
Greg Brown 2.35pm Labor hammering government on income tax
Labor’s Terri Butler goes again on the government’s income tax plan, repeating the “why did they team up with One Nation to give themselves a tax cut” line for the third time in QT.
Butler asks why the government is favouring wealthy people rather than supporting Labor’s bigger tax cuts for low-income earners.
Scott Morrison takes the question and focuses on Labor’s “high taxing” plans because the opposition “can’t control their spending”.
“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,” the Treasurer says.
He says there is $270 billion more taxes under Labor’s plans than the government’s.
“$70bn in higher personal taxes as a result of the policy they announced this week and voted accordingly in the parliament this week,” he says.
Greg Brown 2.20pm PM brings out Shorten maiden speech
Bill Shorten asks Malcolm Turnbull why he “teamed up with Senator (Pauline) Hanson” to give themselves a $7000 tax cut rather than supporting Labor’s plans of bigger tax cuts for low-income workers.
The Prime Minister reads excerpts from Bill Shorten’s maiden speech, where he pronounced the “old class war conflicts” were dead.
He reads more of Shorten’s maiden speech: “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.”
Turnbull says the speech sounds like an “impersonator”.
“Was there there an impersonator? Is this the same leader of the of the opposition, the same member for Maribyrnong?” he says.
Greg Brown 2.10pm QT opener on aged care workers
Labor’s Julie Collins opens up question time on Malcolm Turnbull’s comments in parliament this week, saying the PM said a 60-year-old aged care worker should be able to aspire to get a better 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 $7000 a year?”
Turnbull again denies he ever said the statement about aged care workers.
He then goes onto attack Labor for opposing the government’s recently passed income tax cuts.
“Now we have a Labor Party that has voted against Australian workers keeping more of the money they earn,” Turnbull says.
“They have described tax relief is a giveaway. You know why? Because they think that every dollar Australians earn belongs to the government.
“This is a massive personal income tax reform, the most comprehensive in a generation, and the winners are hard working Australian families, the Labor Party has abandoned them.”
Greg Brown 1.55pm Tax package reckless, unfair; Bowen
Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen has slammed the government’s package as being reckless and unfair.
He said Labor would deliver “bigger, better fairer” income tax cuts if it wins the next election.
“Today the fiscal recklessness and addiction to unfairness of the Turnbull government is perhaps starker than it has ever been,” Mr Bowen said.
“This is a government that celebrates when it reduces the fairness in Australia’s tax system.”
Referring to Pauline Hanson’s support of the government bill in the Senate, Mr Bowen said: “I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt that she doesn’t understand the policy.”
Labor will replace Turnbull’s tax cut for the top end of town and deliver bigger tax cuts to people who need it the most: middle class and working Australians.
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) June 21, 2018
Greg Brown 1.45pm PM hails passing of tax package
Malcolm Turnbull has hailed the passage of his $144 billion tax package as the “most comprehensive reform of personal income tax in a generation” as he described the scheme as both “fair” and “aspirational”.
The Prime Minister said the package would mean 94 per cent of Australians would pay no more than 32.5 cents for each dollar they earn.
He said the reform was fair because people on the top marginal tax rate, of 45 per cent, would pay a larger portion of the tax bill than they do now.
“So those on the highest incomes will continue to pay most of the tax,” Mr Turnbull said.
“It is fair, it rewards and encourages enterprise, it encourages and enables aspiration. That is what this is all about.”
He said today’s vote in the Senate was a win for Australian families.
“Above all, it says to Australian families: we believe in you,” Mr Turnbull said.
“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.
“We want you to be able to realise your dreams and get ahead. This personal income tax plan is for you.”
1.35pm The income tax changes explained
From July 1, 2018
- New low- and middle-income tax offset worth up to $530 a year
- This offset will be available from 2018/19 through to 2021/22 as a lump sum after an assessment of an individual lodged tax return.
- A lift in the 32.5 per cent tax bracket from $87,000 to $90,000
- So, an individual on $30,000 will be $200 better off; on $50,000 will be $530 better off; on$85,000 will be $530 better off; on $120,000 will be $215 better off; and on $200,000 will be $135 better off.
From July 1, 2022
- An increase in the existing low-income tax offset from $445 to $645
- An increase in the 19 per cent tax bracket $37,000 to $41,000
- A further lift to the 32.5 per cent tax bracket from $90,000 to $120,000
From July 1, 2024
- The removal of the 37 per cent bracket
- Extending the 32.5 per cent tax bracket further from $120,000 to $200,000
AAP
Greg Brown 1.27pm ‘I’m going to take credit for this as well’
Pauline Hanson says she received nothing in return for supporting the government’s income tax cuts, but issued her hope Malcolm Turnbull would adopt her apprenticeship scheme.
The One Nation leader attacked Bill Shorten for “forgetting about the battlers”, wrongly claiming Labor’s plan would cost the budget more than the government’s.
“Bill Shorten and the Labor Party, they just don’t get it. They’re talking about the higher-income earners of this country, they are forgetting about the battlers,” Senator Hanson said.
Senator Hanson claimed credit for the passage of the legislation and attacked Labor and the Greens as “liars”.
“I’m going to take credit for this as well because I was one of the senators that actually has supported this. There are 76 senators in that chamber, so we all played our part with this,” Senator Hanson said.
She also cast doubt as to whether she would still be in parliament when the full effects of the tax package come into effect in 2024.
“I might be a self-funded retiree at that time, I’m not going to speculate that I’m still going to be here,” she said. “I’m not going to take it for granted I’ll still be here in this parliament.”
.@PaulineHansonOz says she is not getting anything in return for her two votes for the cuts in the Senate.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 21, 2018
'I am hoping the government will now take up our apprenticeship scheme, it is all about jobs.'
MORE: https://t.co/t3PvJSmiyy #Newsday pic.twitter.com/1YDcl0T9P0
Greg Brown 1.15pm Sukkar backs Treasury on ‘black hole’
Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar says the government stands by Treasury’s analysis that Labor’s dividend imputation crackdown has a $10 billion black hole, declaring there needs to be questions asked about the sums of the Parliamentary Budget Office.
“I think on this there would have to be questions asked (about the PBO, I support Treasury’s numbers),” Mr Sukkar told Sky News.
“Governments have to take the advice of Treasury in formulating budgets.
“Oppositions who have got a very bad track record on budget black holes, particularly Chris Bowen who delivered a $16 billion black hole when he was last treasurer, raise huge doubts for all Australians.”
Dennis Shanahan 1pm Big win for Turnbull
COMMENT
Malcolm Turnbull has had a big win politically and legislatively on the Coalition’s $144 billion 10-year tax package.
It will be a huge boost to Coalition morale and momentum going into the winter parliamentary break, which will be dominated by the five by-elections on July 28.
The by-elections are a dry run for the government’s personal income tax package and any retreat in Labor support will be seen as endorsement for the Coalition’s “aspirational” tax cuts and reform, which do away with a large slice of regressive bracket creep for taxpayers improving their pay.
Pauline Hanson’s eye on one of those by-elections — Longman in northern Queensland — has caused her to frustrate the Coalition’s remaining $30 billion company tax cuts but to give the green light to personal income tax relief for low-to-middle income earners from July 1 and for those earning more than $120,000 up to $200,000 even greater relief in the years to come.
Labor is now committed to a big-risk election strategy of seeking voters to support a platform that involves repealing law that takes away future tax cuts from those earning more than $95,000 a year.
The ALP is now in a reverse position of Paul Keating in 1992 — before he won the 1993 election — when he assured voters his tax cuts weren’t just a promise, they were “L-A-W, law”.
Read Shanahan’s analysis in full here: Big win for Turnbull
12.45pm Treasurer touts tax cuts
Scott Morrison has sent a tweet selling the government’s income tax package after it passed the Senate.
“The Turnbull (government) has delivered income tax cuts for all Australian workers paying tax,” Mr Morrison tweeted.
“In passing our personal income tax plan through the parliament, the (government) has ensured Australians will be paying less tax, and be rewarded for their hard work both now and into the future.”
Negotiations in the Chamber before the Government's income tax cut bill passed. #auspol pic.twitter.com/EYkfXdObkv
— kym smith (@kymbo9) June 21, 2018
A happy @TurnbullMalcolm in Parliament today.
— kym smith (@kymbo9) June 21, 2018
The Government’s $144 billion dollar tax relief package has passed the @AuSenate. #auspol pic.twitter.com/HNDEUYepct
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
Tax cuts bill that hands thousands $$ to politicians & millionaires has just passed he Senate - thanks to Pauline Hanson & Nick Xenophon’s Centre Alliance party. Billions of dollars for tax cuts for the rich and billions less for schools, hospitals and aged care. Shameful.
— Sarah Hanson-Young💚 (@sarahinthesen8) June 21, 2018
Greg Brown 12.03pm Senate passes income tax cuts
Malcolm Turnbull’s $144 billion income tax cut will become law after the Senate passed the legislation unamended.
The bill passed the upper house 37 votes to 33.
Labor, the Greens and crossbencher Tim Storer were the only senators who opposed the government’s bill.
One Nation and Centre Alliance supported the bill, as well as crossbench senators Cory Bernardi, Derryn Hinch, David Leyonhjelm and Brian Burston.
Under the first of three stages in the plan, low- and middle-income earners will get tax relief of up to $530 a year from July 1 with benefits for people earning up to $200,000 to come into place in 2024.
more to come...
Greg Brown 11.50am Labor robocall targets Hanson
Labor has launched a robocall campaign against Pauline Hanson in the Queensland electorate of Longman. The first calls went out this morning.
It says: “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.”
The seat of Longman will be one of the five by-elections on Super Saturday
Senator Hanson’s announcement that One Nation will support the Turnbull government’s income tax cuts was made with more than an eye on the hotly contested by-election in Longman, north of Brisbane, one of five to be held on Super Saturday next month.
Any move by Senator Hanson and her West Australian colleague Peter Georgiou to block tax relief for low and middle-income workers would have hurt the party’s chances in the July 28 contest.
Greg Brown 11.30am Election a fight for character, Swan agrees
Incoming Labor president Wayne Swan has rejected the government’s claim Bill Shorten is too influenced by the CFMMEU.
“They’re the propaganda lines that the government runs in the parliament. Who runs the Liberal Party? The plutocrats. Very large companies that are getting the tax cuts from this government,” Mr Swan told Sky News.
Mr Swan said he agreed with Liberal Party federal president Nick Greiner that the next election would be a fight for the “central character of the country”.
“There’s a very clear choice – a prosperous, fair Australia, with a fair tax system under Labor, and under the Liberals what you get is the rich are getting richer, the middle class is getting hollowed out, and they’re all about creating vast armies of working poor for people on low wages,” Mr Swan said.
.@SwannyQLD: The Liberal party have been captured by the radical right and the party has been ‘Trumpified.’
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 20, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/YWRuSbPD4Y #amagenda pic.twitter.com/1Lg6uZpaaP
11am Tax bill debate starts in Senate
The Senate has started debating the government’s income tax cut bill, after it passed through the House of Representatives this morning.
Greg Brown 10.55am Hanson ‘looking after own class’: Cameron
Labor senator Doug Cameron claims Pauline Hanson is supporting the government’s income tax package because she is “rich”.
Senator Cameron accused the One Nation leader of looking after “her own class” rather battlers.
“This decision by Pauline Hanson to support some of the highest-income earners in the country just demonstrates how out of touch Pauline Hanson is,” Senator Cameron said this morning.
“We know she is rich herself, so she is looking after her own class. She is certainly not looking after working-class people.”
The One Nation leader last night declared her hand on the government’s income tax package, saying she would support it and blasting Labor and the Greens.
Earlier this morning Senator Hanson said: “I think it is so ironic that the Labor Party, they are supposed to be looking after the battlers, they are clearly not.
“They are talking about the big end of town, the millionaires... do you really think that those on $200,000 - and (Labor MPs) are making more than that - a $7000 tax cut is going to make a big difference to them? It is not.
“It is all about the people below that income, they need a hand.”
10.45am Dutton doubts Libs will rebel over energy
Cabinet minister Peter Dutton is confident his conservative colleagues will eventually fall into line with the government’s energy policy. Former prime minister Tony Abbott has threatened to vote against his own government to sink the national energy guarantee.
But Mr Dutton insists there’s a long way to go before that.
“The government is working on getting prices down; we’re seeing - after prices had risen by over 100 per cent under Labor - they are starting to come down,” Mr Dutton told 2GB radio today.
“We’re seeing an issue around reliability, we’re addressing that issue, and we’re saying if you want to introduce renewables you’ve got to have baseload which includes coal and gas and other measures.”
Mr Abbott has been campaigning to build a new coal-fired power station and is ramping up his efforts to change the coalition’s energy plans. “I hope it doesn’t come to questions of crossing the floor, I really do. It’s not something that any Liberal would lightly do,” Mr Abbott told 2GB yesterday.
“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 they need for jobs to continue.” Mr Abbott and several other pro-coal MPs are demanding the national energy guarantee focus less on emissions.
At least one-third of the Nationals partyroom is also opposed to the government’s energy policy, demanding it intervene more directly in the market to lower power prices.
AAP
Rhian Deutrom 10.30am Childcare crackdown aims to save $1bn
Education Minister Simon Birmingham has launched a crackdown on childcare providers who fabricate documentation to obtain government subsidies.
More than 150 childcare providers were suspended or shut down during a six-month investigation into dodgy daycare providers that uncovered misconduct including fabricating paperwork and exaggerating hours of care in order to claim more government subsidies.
The crackdown is expected to save almost $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies that would have been paid out to fraudulent childcare providers.
Appearing on Sky News this morning, Mr Birmingham labelled the behaviour of the sanctioned childcare providers as “reprehensible”.
“We have seen reprehensible in terms of providers claiming subsidies for children who didn’t exit, who weren’t present at the time the care was being claimed for, who were even overseas at the time,” Mr Birmingham said.
The clampdown comes ahead of the government’s new childcare assistance package, which will launch on July 2.
“This is about strengthening the rules and regulations around childcare to make sure it is easier to catch people and prosecute them where we can,” he said.
“And we have done that. We’ve now caught a number of people over a period of time.”
While he admitted that the overwhelming majority of Australian childcare providers operated appropriately, the crackdown was implemented to clean up the sector before the government’s package takes effect.
“We can’t allow a few rotten apples to spoil the whole bunch but we do need to make sure those rotten apples are pushed out of the system,” he said.
10.26am And back it goes
Consideration on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Plan) Bill 2018 is now complete. The bill (minus amendments) will now be transmitted to @AuSenate for consideration.
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) June 21, 2018
Greg Brown 10.17am Labor amendments voted down
Labor’s amendments to the government’s income tax bill have been defeated in the House, by 75 votes to 64.
The government will now move to table the full $144 billion package.
Greg Brown 9.45am Lower house voting on tax package
A division is under way in the House of Representatives for a vote on Labor’s amendment to the government’s income tax cut bill.
The amendment, which separates stage three from the rest of the package, is expected to be defeated because the government has a majority in the lower house.
The unamended legislation will then be debated in the House and pass with the government’s numbers.
It will then go to the Senate, where it is expected to pass and become law due to sufficient support from the crossbench, including One Nation.
But nothing is guaranteed when it comes to the fickle crossbench of this Senate.
Having agreed that to the Treasurer's motion 'that the question be now put', the House is now dividing on the motion 'hat the amendments be considered immediately'.
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) June 20, 2018
Mr Morrison has moved that the amendments be disagreed to.
— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) June 20, 2018
Greg Brown 9.30am NEG position not settled: Nat
Nationals MP Keith Pitt says price and reliability should be the most important considerations in energy policy as government MPs are becoming increasingly sceptical of the national energy guarantee.
Mr Pitt said the final design of the NEG should put a premium on driving down electricity prices, after Tony Abbott warned backbenchers may cross the floor against the government’s policy.
“Obviously the positon is not yet settled, there is a draft or discussion paper which is out which will go of course to COAG for further discussions,” Mr Pitt said this morning.
“This is an incredibly complicated, technical and difficult issue, but we must put the price of energy first and foremost and reliability second.”
Former prime minister Mr Abbott has held out the threat of MPs crossing the floor to vote against the NEG, warning Malcolm Turnbull not to ignore the Coalition backbench and accusing the government of outsourcing its policy to the Labor premiers.
Greg Brown 9.18am I’ll fight election on tax: Laundy
Workplace Relations Minister Craig Laundy says he would relish the chance to fight for re-election in his marginal western Sydney seat of Reid on the government’s income tax package.
Mr Laundy said the package offered double the total tax breaks than Labor did, while also tackling structural reform. He said Bill Shorten’s package of offering bigger breaks to people earning less than $125,000 was flawed because it did not tackle bracket creep.
“(Labor’s policy) has no structural reform element, there is no handle for bracket creep, in fact they rely on it as they move forward for a major source of revenue in their budget figures,” Mr Laundy told Sky News.
“Am I comfortable going to the next election going to the election fighting on a platform to lower corporate and personal income tax versus the Labor Party increasing company and personal income tax? Absolutely.”
.@LaundyCraigMP says he ‘absolutely’ comfortable going into the next election with tax reforms across the board.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 20, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/YWRuSbPD4Y #amagenda pic.twitter.com/6tacBMlh4W
9.15am Perils for Pauline resurface
Pauline Hanson is once again embroiled in a desperate struggle for political survival, writes Simon Benson
Senator Pauline Hanson arrives at Parliament House. #auspol pic.twitter.com/H7vN7WaCmY
— kym smith (@kymbo9) June 20, 2018
Greg Brown 8.45am Rich won’t even notice their tax cut
Pauline Hanson says people earning more than $200,000 a year will barely notice the $7000 tax break they will get under Malcolm Turnbull’s $144 billion tax plan.
Senator Hanson said it did not matter rich people would receive thousands of dollars in extra tax breaks under the government’s plan, because the proportion of the relief was small compared to their yearly earnings.
She attempted to paint herself as a bigger defender of the battlers than Bill Shorten, arguing her support for the tax package would help low-income earners.
“I think it is so ironic that the Labor Party, they are supposed to be looking after the battlers, they are clearly not,” Senator Hanson said this morning.
“They are talking about the big end of town, the millionaires ..do you really think that those on $200,000 -- and (Labor MPs) are making more than that -’ a $7000 tax cut is going to make a big difference to them? It is not.
“It is all about the people below that income, they need a hand.”
Senator Hanson said the government had not horse-traded with her to receive her support, but she noted her ambition for a new apprenticeship scheme.
“No I have put my policies forward, they have listened to what I have to say and in all honesty this was about the people of Australia getting their tax cuts,” Senator Hanson said.
“I’m hopeful to get the apprenticeship scheme up, I think they thought it was a great idea to do it and we need it.”
.@PaulineHansonOz says she discussed the personal income tax package with her colleague @SenatorGeorgiou, and they came to the conclusion ‘the only fair thing to do’ was to support govt’s tax cuts.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 20, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/YWRuSbPD4Y #firstedition pic.twitter.com/cfjm0S1qfg
Greg Brown 8.21am Central Alliance denies division
Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick has denied the party is divided on the issue of income tax cuts, despite the party’s Mayo candidate, Rebekha Sharkie, being against passing the full bill.
Senator Patrick said, although the party was opposed to stage three of the package, it would not stand in the way of passing it in the event of a vote in the Senate today.
He denied there was a split in the party on the issue, despite Ms Sharkie’s strong opposition to the package.
“Rebekha came out yesterday quite strongly and suggested that stage three wasn’t prudent, and that is consistent with our position in the Senate,” Senator Patrick told ABC radio.
“I’ve had a conversation with her this morning, she feels quite strongly about stage three.”
Senator Patrick said the party would help Labor repeal stage three of the legislation of Bill Shorten wins power.
“We are 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,” Senator Patrick said.
“The downside if we do vote for all three is then of course high income earners get a tax break.
“But we have got to remember that doesn’t happen until 2024 and indeed the Labor Party have said they are going to repeal that if they gain power.”
Greg Brown 8.01am Vanuatu PM to visit Australia
The Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas, will visit Australia over the weekend as the Turnbull government tries to increase its influence in the Pacific.
Mr Tabimasmas will arrive in Australia on Saturday and stay for a week, visiting Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane.
Malcolm Turnbull said discussions would focus on increasing investment and bilateral trade, as well as enhancing the strategic relationship.
“We are committed to stepping up our engagement in the Pacific in support of a stable and prosperous region. As Vanuatu’s largest bilateral aid donor, we invest approximately $69 million in development assistance annually,” the Prime Minister said in a statement this morning.
“Our co-operation focuses on supporting economic governance, infrastructure, education health, law and justice.
Fairfax Media reported in April that China had held discussions about Vanuatu about building a military base on the South Pacific nation.
Both China and Vanuatu denied the report.
Greg Brown 7.09am Turnbull tax push
The government will push to have its $144 billion income tax cut package voted on in both houses of parliament today after securing the crucial support from One Nation.
What’s making news:
Pauline Hanson will hand Malcolm Turnbull his most significant political victory — the passage of the government’s $144 billion income tax cuts — despite a last ditch push by Bill Shorten to sink the plan.
Pauline Hanson’s announcement that One Nation will support the Turnbull government’s income tax cuts was made with more than an eye on the hotly contested by-election in Longman, north of Brisbane, next month.
Liberal conservatives are divided over whether Australia should stay in the UN Human Rights Council after the US yesterday withdrew, with Liberal senator James Paterson declaring the country must remain as a “nightwatchman” against “anti-Israel bias”.
The deputy chairman of parliament’s intelligence committee, Labor MP Anthony Byrne, has issued a veiled warning to Beijing for criticising Australia’s new anti-spy laws, saying China should be “very careful” in its criticism.
Tony Abbott has held out the threat of MPs crossing the floor to vote against the national energy guarantee, warning Malcolm Turnbull not to ignore the Coalition backbench and accusing the government of outsourcing its policy to the Labor premiers.
Bill Shorten will today face government accusations that as the minister in charge of superannuation in the Gillard government he effectively stripped low-income workers of retirement savings when he removed a cap on fees charged on low-income accounts.
Pauline Hanson has attacked Labor and Greens MPs for accepting pay rises while voting against tax cuts for everyday Australians, branding them “hypocrites”.
Almost $1 billion in taxpayer money that was due to go to 151 dodgy family daycare centres has been stopped after the daycare services had subsidies cancelled or suspended in the latest crackdown by the federal government.
Natalie Joyce has broken her silence over her estranged husband Barnaby’s affair and love child, saying the former deputy prime minister’s tell-all paid television interview with partner Vikki Campion was “an absolute disgrace”.
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