28.5.2026 - Treasury Laws Amendment - Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026

Ms SPENDER (Wentworth) (11:09): I move: That the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 and Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 be referred to the Standing Committee on Economics for consideration and an advisory report by 31 July 2026. The government, in the last budget, has put tax reform on the agenda. I think this is the right decision and I think it was a brave decision. This is difficult, and we have not had significant tax reform in this country for the last 25 years. I recognise the guts and the courage that it took to do that. But I think the government is making absolutely the wrong decision to try and push this through quickly. It is making the wrong decision to try and push this through without significant interrogation at the Senate or at the House level. And it is the wrong decision to try and push through legislation without dealing with some of the problems that the government itself recognises with the bill and its impact, in particular, on small businesses and those in the startup space. This is not just wrong for the government. I think this is wrong, firstly, for the economy. If we don't get significant reforms right and if we don't deal with the issues, and there are issues with what the government has put forward, then this bill will not deliver what it needs to as well as it could for the economy. Secondly, it is wrong for the people. I can tell you people do not understand what the government has proposed, and until a broader part of the community understands and actually backs this—this is not fair, frankly, to the Australian people, and it's inappropriate. Finally, it is the wrong decision for reform more generally. It is hard to get tax reform on the agenda. It is hard to get decent reform on the agenda. But the answer, once you've made that decision, is not just to ram it through and hope for the best and hope that people get over their concerns. If it's done wrong and if it can't build the support that it needs to build, it will set back reform not only in tax but also more broadly across the economy. That is a bad outcome for this country. I want to talk to you specifically about why I support reform, because there are people in this parliament and the country who say: 'No, don't touch anything. Everything's okay here.' I have to say, I don't agree. I have been one of the strongest proponents for reform in the tax system over the last four years since I have been here. It is absolutely right that reform is on the agenda if we care about building prosperity and we care about building fairness. We need both those things in our economy. When I look at the personal income tax system at the moment, I identify three significant concerns that I believe need to be fundamentally addressed. Firstly, we know that the tax system taxes you most heavily when you have the least ability to pay. Talk to any young person. I'll give you an example. There are two households living next door to each other that are both on a hundred grand, but one is a retired household. They pay on average half the tax of a working-age household despite the fact that—I think these are the numbers—they are four times more wealthy, much more likely to own their own home, much less likely to have a HECS debt and much less likely to be battling with renting costs, trying to save for a deposit and all those kinds of issues. It's never going to be perfect, but I'd like a tax system that taxes people appropriately or taxes people less when they're trying to build wealth and when they have less capacity to pay....