Matt Gregg
Deakin · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“Now, let's talk about the challenges faced by the Australian people: a quadrupling of house prices over two decades, unresolved by the Liberal Party in government; and we had 4.1 gigawatts out of baseload energy, unresponded to by the coalition government.”
“This is a government focused on the future and focused on actually resolving the challenges faced by the Australian people rather than whinging about them and going on template tirades which solve absolutely nothing. The coalition then have the gall to say, 'Oh, look, the coalition's less popular.”
“We are going to confront them on behalf of the Australian people, to make sure that they can be optimistic that the future is going to be better. We make absolutely no apologies for that. Today, 1 July—despite me sounding a little angry—is actually a very good day. It's a very good day! Every taxpayer is getting a tax cut.”
“Change is what the Labor government is delivering. We are making difficult decisions that actually address the challenges faced by Australians. We don't just sit here proud of the status quo; we come here to make a difference. It's very easy to come in and make statements. What is difficult is change.”
“Then, suddenly, they come into this chamber as if all challenges faced by society came out of nowhere and are all Labor's fault. It's complete nonsense. We are responding to the issue of energy shortages by developing a 21st-century grid, because we know that energy is the key to future productivity and success.”
“Where do I begin? We start with the member for Goldstein making up quotes to be outraged by, reciting tired old campaign lines from a party fast approaching the abyss.”
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“We are going to make sure that those services continue to improve and meet the needs of the Australian people, and we make no apologies for that. There will be no tirades. There will be no attacks against members of our party or their party or anything like that. This isn't going to be just an abuse of parliamentary privilege. We are going to talk about the Australian people and what we are going to do to make their lives better.”
“We are going to confront them on behalf of the Australian people, to make sure that they can be optimistic that the future is going to be better. We make absolutely no apologies for that. Today, 1 July—despite me sounding a little angry—is actually a very good day. It's a very good day! Every taxpayer is getting a tax cut. We've got the $250 worker tax offset. We've now got a simpler tax system; there is the $1,000 instant tax deduction. We've now got award wages increasing. We've got the minimum wage increasing from today. Today is an excellent day! Urgent care clinics are becoming permanent. This is a fantastic day for Australia, and we should celebrate it. We're injecting more money into public hospitals—$25 billion—because health care matters and this is a party dedicated to health.”
“Change is what the Labor government is delivering. We are making difficult decisions that actually address the challenges faced by Australians. We don't just sit here proud of the status quo; we come here to make a difference. It's very easy to come in and make statements. What is difficult is change. We are ready to do the hard work, and we've got a caucus committed to making a difference to the people in our electorates and the people in their electorates as well. We know that this isn't just about presiding; it is about taking on responsibility and making the differences needed so that tomorrow can be better than yesterday. We're not going to spend a decade doing nothing. We are not going to allow the challenges faced by Australia to double and continue compounding over time.”
“This is a government focused on the future and focused on actually resolving the challenges faced by the Australian people rather than whinging about them and going on template tirades which solve absolutely nothing. The coalition then have the gall to say, 'Oh, look, the coalition's less popular. Why?' Apparently, it's Labor's fault that people don't like the coalition much anymore! There's a complete lack of insight. We see why, from the member for Barker—their world is Facebook. As I say to my loved ones, it's bad for your mental health, and it will completely diminish your sense of reality, if that is where you get your wisdom from. I would suggest something novel. How about talking about solutions, talking to real people and learning to listen to the Australian people and their demand for change?”
“Then, suddenly, they come into this chamber as if all challenges faced by society came out of nowhere and are all Labor's fault. It's complete nonsense. We are responding to the issue of energy shortages by developing a 21st-century grid, because we know that energy is the key to future productivity and success. Productivity has been a focus of this budget. We are focusing tax incentives towards productive investments rather than continued house price inflation. We're supporting small businesses and startups. We've got the permanence of the $20,000 instant asset write-off. We've got loss carry back, and we have tax refunds for new-start businesses so they have the capital to get started and succeed.”
“Now, let's talk about the challenges faced by the Australian people: a quadrupling of house prices over two decades, unresolved by the Liberal Party in government; and we had 4.1 gigawatts out of baseload energy, unresponded to by the coalition government. We've seen long-term challenges unaddressed—aged care, where neglect over a decade was unresolved, because, apparently, an ageing population was completely unpredictable. Then, we had failures in child care and pretty much every area of service. We had sovereign energy capability decline. We saw oil processing down, which left us, after a year of coalition, more vulnerable. They don't lead. They preside. The born-to-rule brigade sat there for nine years and achieved absolutely nothing on behalf of the Australian people—compulsive underachievement for nine years consecutively.”
“Where do I begin? We start with the member for Goldstein making up quotes to be outraged by, reciting tired old campaign lines from a party fast approaching the abyss. Then we had the member for Barker highlighting what the Liberal Party has become: a live-action version of the Facebook comments section—watch an hour of Credlin , then to the computer with caps lock key down, ready to let the rage out. Finally, we have an attack on a former Liberal treasurer, a personal attack with nothing to do with the MPI, highlighting that the coalition has truly become the blockbuster video of Australian politics.”
“Across the board, we are taking into account the legitimate rights and interests of older people because we know that older Australians need a government that has their back, and they can rely on the Labor government to do everything we can to improve their lives and conditions.”
“This government has taken clear action—the remarkable idea that a nursing home should have a nurse in it. Finally, a government came in and made that the standard, and we are seeing it in the vast majority of aged-care facilities now. These issues could not be more serious. In addition to that, in other areas of policy—the MPI goes to governing for older Australians—across portfolios, we're seeing more work being done in superannuation to ensure that older people receive advice before they retire to improve their retirement outcomes. In areas of communication, we're ensuring that the antiscams frameworks are preventing criminals from taking advantage of older Australians.”
“They've referred to a change to the subsidy for private health insurance, and, as the minister said, that is going straight into aged care to ensure that people receive the supports they need at home, because we know that, the longer they can stay at home, the higher their quality of life is. This isn't just a game about people living longer. We have to make sure that older Australians who have contributed their entire lives to our society get to complete their final innings with dignity, to make sure that families aren't left tearing their hair out worried about their loved ones not receiving the support they desire—people with family members with dementia worrying that there are going to be chemical restraints in facilities just because they're understaffed or because there's no nurse in the nursing home.”
“Not only are we investing in more facilities; we have got a clear focus on ensuring that they meet appropriate standards and that the rights of older people are taken into consideration in the design and delivery of aged-care services across the board. Are we there yet? Of course we're not, but we need to make sure that the standards that we uphold are what we would want for our own families, because I think all of us have got a story of an elderly loved one who has been subjected to care that we would find simply unacceptable. These are the most vulnerable people in our community, and we do have to stand up for them.”
“I have to thank the minister for all his assistance in helping to ensure that all of the residents in that facility were relocated to ensure that they received the care that they needed going forward. The reality is that we cannot let standards slip. We know from the royal commission that, because of neglect, too many older Australians were left malnourished and effectively abandoned during the day, and some were subjected to all sorts of torrid abuse too graphic to describe in this chamber. It was a system failure, and it was allowed to happen for years. It was a case of out of sight, out of mind. Well, no more. It's time that, as a whole, this parliament stands up for older Australians. We must make sure that we insist upon a proper quality standard across the industry, and we're working to do just that.”
“It was something that we committed to do together, across party lines, not that long ago, but in a desperate attempt to find partisan issues and reasons for grievance, we now see these debates devolve into personal attacks—personal attacks relating to the implementation of legislation they voted for, no less. These are incredibly serious matters, and I take them seriously and, I have to say, so does the minister. In Ringwood North in my electorate of Deakin we had an aged-care facility, Della Dale, that simply hadn't been meeting standards over a long period of time. The aged-care quality and service regulator had made that clear and had given them every opportunity to make a difference. The difficult decision was made to close that facility down.”
“It's going to take a very long time to make up for a very long period of ignoring the obvious and predictable outcome of becoming an ageing population. Older Australians have deserved a steadfast resolve to improve the system. Up until this government, they haven't had it. The legislation was changed, and it is already making a difference. Tens of thousands more Australians are now receiving care in their own homes. Does that mean we're content with the system as it is? Of course not. We're not asking people to be pleased about the status quo. In fact, we are doing everything we can to drive it forward to make sure more older people can live their remaining years and complete their final seasons with dignity and with as much health as possible. But this is a mammoth task.”
“This is an incredibly serious topic. After all, the way we judge a society is by how we care for its most vulnerable. We know that the aged-care system was correctly categorised as a reflection of neglect in that initial report in 2019. There have been years of ignoring the statistical fact that we are an ageing population and that more and more of us are getting older and will need support. And what was done? Not enough. Now we're at the stage where we would need about 10,000 extra aged-care beds a year for a whole number of years even to keep up. As the member for Boothby quite rightly noted, that would be about three extra facilities a week for the next 20 years. That is a mammoth task, and it's not going to be easy.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. What is the progress of the government's reforms to give first home buyers a fair go, to make the tax system fairer, and to help people keep to earn more and keep more of what they earn, and what has been standing in the way?”
“It is essential to ensure fairness at the same time as not getting in the way of important reforms to the system. I only wish we had an opposition that could engage with the detail, that could talk about reform in a real, serious, adult and professional way so that we could actually enhance the policy rather than just have this series of white noise and repetitious alliteration, which, frankly, is unworthy of the parliament.”
“And so those that risk putting the capital in from day dot, those upstarts that get in and try something new, deserve the support of the tax system. This calibration of the tax incentives embedded into our system should focus on those things that improve our productivity, which will encourage the things that will take our economy forward, rather than a subsidy for inflating the price of existing housing. The reality is that the housing system has not served its key purpose—providing shelter and homes for people. It is important to ensure that the distortions that exist in our tax system are ended once and for all, but that it is done in a way that is considerate of all those who legitimately did the right thing. That is why grandfathering is an important part of this bill.”
“It's really assisting with the cash flow of businesses. It's also supporting those innovators taking a risk by introducing a new incentive, which we are still in genuine consultation on. There have been a lot of attacks today about the details of the reform, about innovative businesses and things like that, but the thing about consultation is it's not something you do after you've made a final decision. Consultation is there to inform the process, so it is with a genuine ear that we consult with the business community and get their insights to ensure that we get this right for the businesses that will benefit from it. We want to create an ecosystem where innovation is encouraged, where new starts are given the chance, because we know that so much of the innovation and so many new jobs in this country come from those new-start businesses.”
“We are talking about the future of our economy. We are talking about important incentives for small businesses. And so much is good for business in this budget. There is investment of billions. We have, embedded and permanent, the $20,000 instant asset write-off—not a comparison to be had with the pixie-dust hypothetical policy from the political equivalent of Blockbuster Video, but real tangible reform in the legislation. It's there for the future, for the benefit of small business everywhere. We have got the tax loss carryback for businesses up to $1 billion. That is a huge reform. It essentially means, rather than waiting on capital losses and having a whole complex regime, if you have a good year and you pay tax and then you have bad years and you lose a lot of money then you can reclaim some of that tax back in future years.”
“And we have, through this tax package, an important development—expanding those discounts from around 91 per cent of active businesses to about 98 per cent of active businesses. All small businesses continue to receive considerable CGT discounts within the package put through the budget. This is an important note deliberately omitted by those opposite who prefer to go through the theatrics of a scare campaign. Really the tactic is simple. They want to make it look like something that is averse to a small number of people is an absolute disaster for everyone. If they were actually making an argument that was proportionate to the issues they were raising, it would be even more boring than usual. So what do we see? Cheap theatrics. We see yelling; we see screaming; we see insults. It's worthy of a playground.”
“The sad reality in this House is that, instead of engaging in that complexity, instead of giving genuine feedback and having discussions about details of policy, we've had: 'It's all bad. I can't deal with it anymore. It's too hard.' Basically, it's a campaign that could be summarised as, 'Wah.' And then we have a government that is pursuing legitimate taxation changes that are focused on ensuring that there is equitable treatment between income earned from capital and from labour, believing that both risk and also hard work ought to be rewarded. We have a government that has an understanding of the CGT system, bearing in mind that it sits in a system that has discounts embedded into it already through division 152 of the Income Tax Assessment Act, the small business exemptions.”
“I rise today somewhat aghast at the debate I have seen around the small business tax incentives. We have seen catastrophising, alliteration in amounts that I haven't heard since I was reading children's books to kids and a level of debate that seems more focused on theatrics than facts. The truth is that tax debates are complicated. They impact the businesses that we are proud to represent in our electorates and the people who rely on them as well. The Australian people deserve a debate based on facts. I'm not going to get up and present myself as some kind of fact checker. Obviously, I'm an advocate for the government's policies but it's important that we avoid misinformation and have a calm, rational debate about these reforms.”
“We as a government remain committed to working with our state and territory partners to tackle this illicit trade, so I commend this bill to the House.”
“This is driving legitimate businesses way out of this industry towards the brink because the increase in insurance premiums can be quite dramatic in some of these strata organisations. Often it is a collective insurance policy that covers multiple businesses, so people who are doing the right thing all the time, have done nothing wrong and aren't in control of the situation are facing the costs and consequences of this illicit trade. Every avenue that we can pursue to take down these crooks is going to have to be pursued. I commend the South Australian and Queensland governments for showing that it can be done and that a strong, firm hand, when it comes to dealing with these crooks, actually does work. But we have to have the commitment, and the supports obviously need to be offered at all levels to ensure that that is possible.”
“I receive quite a lot of emails from people in my community—and it's happened since I was first elected—who are genuinely concerned about the presence of unlawful tobacco businesses in our area. They know that it has a huge impact on the amenity of the neighbourhood. They know it has an impact on the businesses that are just going about their day to day—the local butcher, the local pharmacist, the local bakery—because all of them are going to face higher strata fees through insurance premiums, which makes the cost of business higher and makes them even less sustainable, particularly when times are already tough. Then they've got rapidly increasing insurance costs on top of that.”
“Let's at least try enforcing the law strongly rather than just kowtowing to industry calls for bringing back legal cigarettes by making them cheaper again. I think that would be a huge drive backwards. It would completely send the wrong message to our communities. Let's, as a first step, make sure we've got a clear and comprehensive regime to deal with the illegal behaviour and show that strong, zero-tolerance approach to it. That will involve licensing regimes. It will ensure accountability. It will ensure that we know exactly who is registered and lawfully able to trade in legal tobacco products without allowing every shyster who can get themselves a retail lease to get involved in this illicit trade.”
“There's even going to be some roles for local council, local government and communities in making sure that we are holding these crooks to account because they are exploitative, they are criminal and they are undermining not only the safety and wellbeing of our community but also the lives of many of our most vulnerable citizens. These are not healthy products. They're not regulated. There have been lots of reports of dodgy packaging allowing bacteria and mould, so these cigarettes can be even more deadly than the ones sold at the corner store. We cannot show any tolerance for this stuff. But, at the same time, the solution is not to go back to the old days and say, 'Well, let's just go back to legal cigarettes.' Actually, smoking itself is a huge public health problem. It needs to be resolved.”
“We've also got to ensure that there are systems on the ground disrupting every aspect of the supply chain—the warehousing, the transport—and, if it gets into a shop, getting in on the ground and taking care of that quickly as well. It is going to have to be complemented by reforms at state levels, reflecting those in South Australia and Queensland that deal with leases and things on the ground. This is part of the solution but not the entire solution. I think it is important that we all acknowledge that this isn't a package that will get the job done by itself, but it is an important piece of the puzzle. It would be a great shame if anyone in this chamber voted against it simply because it is not a package that gets the whole job done itself. This is going to be a partnership with state government.”
“There will be a role for the media, a role for state governments and a role for ourselves to play in ensuring that this works, because there's no point having strong laws and court decisions that no-one hears about. We've got to ensure that the strength of these laws is promoted and understood and that we have a very clear, and hopefully united, message to the illicit trade that their conduct cannot and will not be tolerated by this parliament or by the authorities in Australia. Since 2023-24, we've provided around $346 million in funding for Border Force to crack down on illicit tobacco and vaping products. We know that they're catching a lot of them on the border, but we also know that that, in and of itself, will not work. It happens through post. It happens through a variety of means, and not every shipping container can be checked.”
“We've seen the value of this trade estimated at between $4.1 billion and $6.9 billion in 2024-25. Organised crime groups are making profits of $4 billion to $7 billion in a year. You can see why the temptation is there. So we know what the drivers of it are; what are the restraints? Well, that has to be strong laws. It has to be strong enforcement and ensuring that those disincentives are there, because we as a community cannot afford to tolerate it. We're going to rebalance that risk-reward calculation by ensuring that strong penalties are on the books and also that they are known and that they are enforced in a clear and public way.”
“Rather than having the supports out there to help them deal with their addiction or the disincentives that have historically, for years and years and years, driven reductions in smoking rates, they've been undermined by the creation of this industry. We cannot let it continue to fester and to go through our communities without any response. We've seen what's possible in multiple states. When we go ahead and take a hardline approach to these things, it is successful. We've got to make sure that our authorities are supported with strong laws so they're not looking for other breaches and things like that—that the laws around the possession and transportation of these substances are, in themselves, treated as serious offences and managed as such. That is an incredibly important development.”
“It's also about dealing with individuals to make clear that this is simply not acceptable to society, because this industry has got to a point where we can no longer afford to tolerate it. The harm that it is causing is real. It's beyond economic, and it's beyond budgetary. It goes to the rule of law. It goes to the safety of members of our community. It goes to the affordability of conducting legitimate retail business and to making sure that our communities remain safe spaces as much as possible. It's particularly exploitative. It's targeting our most vulnerable: those who have financial constraints.”
“It's one whose messages should be taken with a grain of salt, particularly when those remarks happen to align with self-interest on their part. But I think, as a starting point, there is nothing wrong with saying that we should enforce the law. The laws should be strong, they should be consistent and they should be applied without fear or favour. We need to ensure that people understand that there are consequences. This goes to deterrence, both general and specific, in that, when a sentence is handed down, anyone thinking of getting involved in that kind of activity realises that it's not going to be on and that engaging in that industry is not going to be conducive to a long, happy and prosperous life.”
“I know that some are arguing that those excises should be cut in order to support the legal trade in tobacco. If there is one industry that I don't support—in addition to the criminal industry—it would be the tobacco industry. These have not been honest brokers. These are a lot of the same folks that said: 'Don't worry; vaping will be the solution to smoking. That will help us get over these addictions.' We all know that's a load of crud. The reality is that these are self-interested companies. They have been in the industry of death for decades, and I don't think I've ever seen that industry on the side of the angels on any topic. So I think we need to view any remarks backed by industry with a healthy degree of scepticism. While I'm not here to bag local retailers, we've got to remember the history of this industry.”
“It's hurting people, including our most vulnerable, in areas where people haven't got a lot of spare money and whose access to supports is minimal. We're not dealing with honest actors here; we are dealing with crooks. We are dealing with bikie gangs. We are dealing with some of the most serious criminals in the country who have found very attractive trade for themselves. And, generally, it's not the only stuff they're selling. They're involved in all sorts of illicit trades. This is one that they've found to be rather profitable, because it's a highly addictive substance, it's cheap to purchase, they've found various ways to get it into the market and there is demand. Excise is a policy that's existed for a long time. It's been one of the great successes.”
“I, as much as anyone, get frustrated when I see consumer affairs or council employees politely knocking on the doors of these retailers. I also want to see police kicking down those doors—simultaneously with other venues, because we all know they text each other and know what's going on. We need strong law enforcement around this, and that will be supported by having strong laws made in this parliament that will apply across Australia to ensure that those tools are available to our law enforcement agencies. As part of that, the tools include surveillance provisions enabling us to detect, disrupt and respond to acts involved in this supply chain to ensure that we're actually disrupting this illicit trade and that there is no profit to be gained from engaging in this industry.”
“This bill is a further investment, a further step to ensure that we have clear and strong laws that can be enforced by our officials across the country to ensure that there is a consistent approach and that the severity of the impact of this illicit trade is reflected in the seriousness of the crimes as recorded in legislation. While it is around excise and revenue raising, to me that's incidental. It is about the safety of our communities, it's about the rule of law, it's about combating serious crime in a real and serious way, and it's about ensuring that ill-gotten gains are recovered and treated for what they are and that there is nothing to be gained from selling illicit tobacco at any level. We have to be clear, strong and decisive.”
“We know that serious organised crime is involved and that it is doing real harm in our communities. We've seen businesses that are completely uninvolved in tobacco face far higher costs because their strata fees have been increased by insurance costs, driven by risks associated with having tobacco retailers nearby, both legal and unlawful. So this is having a real impact on our communities. It's having a real impact on our local economies. And it's something that all of us in the community see as this shameless, open lawlessness that needs to be dealt with in a clear and decisive way. We've seen in jurisdictions like South Australia and Queensland that where we have clear laws and we go ahead and enforce them it is incredibly effective in combating the many mischiefs associated with this market.”
“That's not to say that it's the coalition's fault or Labor's fault. This is something that's been coming for a while. But, as other colleagues in this House have spoken about, the risk-reward ratio for selling illicit tobacco has made it all too tempting for criminal enterprises, which deal this substance much as they do other illicit substances: creating supply chains, exploiting vulnerabilities in our system and chasing the money where it lies. So the important thing with this legislation is that it helps to change that risk-reward ratio. It makes very clear that this is a serious offence. Its connection to serious crime itself means that the gravity of this offence gives it a serious aspect, and it needs to be treated as such. We know the industries that are driving this.”
“I rise to support the Combatting Illicit Tobacco Bill 2026. I think every member of this chamber has seen evidence of the rapidly increasing illicit tobacco market in our communities—dodgy-looking candy stores. There's one in my area where half the shelves are filled with aluminium barbecue trays, as if that's the centre of the business. We all know where they are; we all know what they do. It's created a sense of lawlessness and an undermining of respect for the law that cannot be tolerated any longer. It's been a problem that's been rising for a long time. While some will try to counter it in partisan terms, it's worth remembering that the Illicit Tobacco Taskforce, which was set up back in 2018, was during the coalition government, and then there was a Senate report in I think around 2020.”
“We really do need to remember that we stand here on the shoulders of fantastic Australians who want to make Australia a better place, and Donna McKinnon is the perfect example and really is incredibly deserving of the honour she's received in the Labor Party. She'll be incredibly cross with me for mentioning her name in the parliament, but I think she deserves the recognition that we often get in lieu of those unsung heroes of our various movements. I think she is well deserving, whether she admits it or not. I'd like to thank her for everything she's done for me and for the Labor Party and for being such a great friend over a number of years. Congratulations, Donna. I look forward to fighting the good fight with you for many years to come.”
“Finally, I would like to acknowledge Donna MacKinnon, who has been recognised as Volunteer of the Year at the Victorian Labor Party conference. Everyone in this House knows that we are here on the backs of great Australians who want to make a difference and who ask nothing in return for the hours and hours they give. I have spent countless early mornings with Donna—and late nights—handing out and championing a variety of causes, as well as, of course, campaigning for the Labor Party over a number of years. She's someone who has got boundless energy. She is at every single event, every single doorknock and every single early morning train station. She is a great representation of the soul of the Labor Party—and, I know, parties across the parliament and indeed independents as well.”
“Congratulations to everyone who showed up and joined in, and a special thank you to all the volunteers who put their time and energy into making these musical experiences so special. Sticking with the choir theme, I also recently attended the 16th anniversary of the Stroke A Chord choir. This is a choir for people who have had a stroke and have aphasia, a communication difficulty often caused by stroke. As Secretary Barry Cole said when he invited me to this celebration, the members of Stroke A Chord may not be able to speak, but they can still sing. I saw that first hand, and it was a remarkable experience. It's another example of the power of music to bring people together and provide a great experience. Thank you to Barry and everyone who welcomed me. It was wonderful to celebrate with you.”
“Today I want to touch on some great organisations and people making a real difference in Deakin. My friend the member for Aston and I recently attended an All Stars Choir session in Bayswater North. The All Stars Choir has been around in various forms for decades, but they've experienced amazing growth in the last couple of years and now see about 60 participants at every session. Every Wednesday morning, a group of professional Australian musicians volunteer their time and expertise to provide a live music experience for people with disability. The member for Aston and I had a fantastic time at these sessions, and I thank everyone for indulging my rusty, borderline-intolerable ukulele and vocals.”
“My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How has the Albanese Labor government helped to ensure Australia's fuel security, and what policies will ensure fuel security into the future, and what policies would leave Australia more vulnerable to fuel shocks?”
“I commend this appropriation to the House and thank all of the hardworking people in Treasury and all of its agencies for their great work.”
“While we get the glory work and get to take the credit for the good—and sometimes we cop the blame for the bad—the hard grunt work is really being done by our institutions in government, who really don't receive enough credit. I get as frustrated as anyone with bureaucracy, but the important work that our Public Service does really lacks recognition in this place sometimes. The important work being done to ensure that the trust and integrity in our institutions that we currently enjoy is preserved and built upon is essential. If we continue to invest in these important institutions, we can all be assured that governance in this country is based on robust information and advice from professionals who have done the grunt work.”
“We also have the simplification of a year-on-year tax through that $1,000 instant deduction, saving a whole lot of people the trouble of keeping receipts and hiring an accountant when they have fairly straightforward tax returns by simply being able to tick and opt for a $1,000 instant deduction, which we expect to help millions of Australians recover more every single tax year. That's not just an election sweetener. That's not just a one-off. That is permanent structural reform to the tax system. It's because we have the support of professional institutions that we were able to develop and implement these really important policies and changes.”
“There's also a lot of important work being done around cutting red tape. We've had a lot of discussions in this chamber about small business, but I think one thing we can all agree on is that we've really got to get out of our own way. We've got to minimise the impost of compliance on small business. The work being done to cut unnecessary red tape is an essential piece of work that we've been following through on in successive budgets, and certainly this one has a real focus on ensuring that we continue to cut red tape and simplify things for small business going forward. It also has some specific measures that are of benefit to workers. We have the $250 working Australians amount.”