Pauline Hanson to seal Turnbull’s tax cut win

Pauline Hanson will hand Malcolm Turnbull the passage of the government’s $144 billion income tax cuts.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in the Senate yesterday. Picture: AAP

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.

Ahead of a final Senate vote today, Labor ramped up attacks on Senator Hanson, accusing her of abandoning Queensland ­“battlers”, including those in the marginal seat of Longman who will go to the polls in one of five by-elections on July 28.

The One Nation leader last night declared her hand, saying she would support the government’s income tax package and blasting Labor and the Greens for attempting to deny tax cuts to “hundreds of thousands of hard-working Australians” on taxable incomes from $120,000 to $200,000. When asked by 2GB broadcaster Steve Price whether the three-stage ­personal income tax package had the support of her party, Senator Hanson replied: “Yes, I will be supporting it.”

Labor launched a tactical ­assault in the Senate yesterday, successfully amending the tax bill to strike out stage three cuts for ­higher-income earners, but failing to remove the stage two cuts for middle-­income earners that it had vowed to oppose on Tuesday.

The Senate last night approved the amended bill, sending it back to the House of Representatives, where the Prime Minister said it would be rejected this morning and sent “straight back to the Senate” in its original form.

Senator Hanson said she voted for the package yesterday and, when the bill was presented to the Senate today, she would vote for it again. “I’m pleased to do so and I’m not going to be badgered by the Labor Party or criticised for doing this,” she said. “I’m quite hopeful and confident that it will pass the Senate.”

Scott Morrison yesterday ­attacked Labor for taking four ­different positions on the bill, in a parliamentary strategy designed to force the government to vote against a version of the tax ­package that favoured lower income earners. “This bloke (Mr Shorten) cannot keep a position from one day to the next,” the Treasurer said.

Labor had last month supported the full package in the lower house, allowing it to proceed to the Senate for amendments. Labor Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen had also flagged the prospect of supporting stage two of the cuts, to address bracket creep ­between $37,000 and $90,000.

But on Tuesday, Mr Shorten said Labor would only support stage one — $530 tax offsets to workers earning up to $125,000 — and vowed to go to the next election promising to repeal the stage two and three cuts.

In a crucial victory for the government, Mathias Cormann won the support of the two Centre ­Alliance senators, Rex Patrick and Stirling Griff, who confirmed they would back the entire package when it returns to the Senate today. Senator Patrick said the Centre ­Alliance senators would vote with the government because they believed “low-income and medium-income earners deserve some tax relief”.

The Coalition, which has ­secured the support of seven crossbenchers, now has 38 of the 39 votes it needs to pass the tax package, which Labor, the Greens and independent Tim Storer ­oppose. The votes of Senator Hanson and One Nation colleague Peter Georgiou will seal the entire package of tax cuts. Anticipating a Coalition win, Labor MPs launched a blistering assault on the One Nation leader, accusing her of deserting the voters who elected her.

Labor finance spokesman Jim Chalmers said the voters of Longman were among those who would benefit least from the full tax plan, as the electorate north of Brisbane ranked 141st of 150 electorates on the average benefit per voter. “I think the battlers of Queensland and the battlers of Australia will be absolutely horrified to hear that Pauline Hanson is contemplating supporting Malcolm Turnbull’s tax cuts, which give 60 per cent of the benefit to the wealthiest 20 per cent of Australians,” he said. “If Pauline Hanson votes with Malcolm Turnbull to give bigger tax cuts to the wealthiest Australians, it will expose as a fiction and a fraud this ridiculous notion that One Nation is in this parliament to look after the interests of people who work and struggle in this country.”

Senator Hanson attacked Labor for refusing to support stage two of the tax plan, which would deliver bracket creep relief for workers on incomes of $37,000 to $120,000. “These are your voters,” she said. “Yet you are denying those people you are supposed to support: the battlers.”

Senator Hanson, who has helped block the government’s $35.6bn corporate tax cuts, renewed her calls for a crackdown on multinational companies and an overhaul of petroleum industry taxes to help repair the budget.

Mr Shorten visited an aged-care facility in Canberra yesterday, in an effort to score political points against the Prime Minister, who on Tuesday declared a 60-year-old aged-care worker could “aspire to get a better job” to earn more money. “We’re here today to tell the aged-care workforce of Australia you don’t need to get a better job, you’re doing a great job,” Mr Shorten said. “You just need to get a better government, you need to get a better tax break and you need a better prime minister.”

Mr Turnbull yesterday defended his comment, saying 60-year-olds could aspire to get better jobs.