Mr ROBB (4:04 PM) —Last week we had the spectacle of 25 Labor members rising to debate the personal income tax reduction bill. They rose to oppose tax cuts for all working Australians. You could see from their faces that they were not there out of a sense of conviction. They all had long faces. They all read the same speech, over and over. They all had that look of: ‘What the heck am I doing here, opposing a tax cut for all Australians?’ They took up hours of parliament’s time purely out of a sense of duty to their leader and the small coterie around him who made a very foolish decision to block the tax cuts. They spoke knowing full well that their leader’s decision to block the tax cuts had nothing to do with any unfairness of the proposals but, rather, some misguided strategy to project toughness—a sorry attempt to show that the member for Brand has returned a new man with a tough edge.

It has not made him look tough. It has made him look mean and self-serving and a little touch desperate. As a result, none of the Labor speakers last week had their heart in it. None of them rose to the occasion. Again today we saw this in the House—32 opposition members came in to sit behind their leader, the member for Brand, to give him support. What did we see? Long faces, deathly silence, shifting in their seats, unconvinced by the pathetic arguments mounted by the member for Brand and the member for Lilley. All the 25 speakers of last week and the two who have repeated the same speeches today failed to make the case for unfairness. All of them have only served to remind Australians by their words and their demeanour in the House last week and this week that all their actions in the end amount to the temporary blocking of major tax cuts—$21 billion worth—to all working Australians and a major disruption to 850,000 businesses. How fair is that? They have made no effective case against the tax cuts on fairness or any other grounds—and no wonder, when you look at the facts.

Prior to the new tax system of 1 July 2000 only 30 per cent of taxpayers faced a top marginal rate of 30 per cent or less—that is, out of just over 10 million taxpayers in Australia before 2000, only three million of them paid a top marginal tax rate of 30 per cent or less. That is what we inherited from the Labor Party. But for the last five years 80 per cent of taxpayers have faced a top marginal rate of 30 per cent or less. In other words, close to nine million working Australians, not three million as under Labor, now face a marginal tax rate of 30 per cent or less. Also, with the tax cuts announced in the budget, 1.8 million Australians who are on a 17 per cent marginal tax rate will see a further two per cent cut in their marginal tax rate. What is more, a person earning $10,000 has had about a 50 per cent reduction in income tax since the introduction of the new tax system in 2000 and all following budgets.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr McMullan)—Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting and the member for Goldstein will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.