Mr SUKKAR (Deakin—Assistant Minister to the Treasurer) (15:28): The hide of the shadow Treasurer! The hide of this man today, to come to this dispatch box and talk about working- and middle-class Australians on a day when he stood up and said to 10 million Australians, 'We want a bit more of your money and we are going to deny you a tax cut.' That's what this shadow Treasurer got up and said today, and now he is desperately trying to scramble and desperately trying to justify it. But, once again, we see a shadow Treasurer who just wants to reach his hands a bit deeper into the pockets of hardworking Australians. We see it time and time again. We saw the bluster of the shadow Treasurer at the dispatch box—the bluster, the faux-hairy-chested shadow Treasurer, running around the country talking about his faux class welfare. The only people that the shadow Treasurer wants to go after are those who work hard or those who are vulnerable. He is running around the country talking about going after billionaires and millionaires. Who are the groups that he has gone after? Who are the two groups that contribute the most to the $220 billion of additional taxes as proposed by this shadow Treasurer? Well, it's not all of the millionaires and the billionaires; it's not the Apples and Googles of the world. The two groups that this shadow Treasurer's going after, the two that contribute the most to his cash grab, are retirees, with his retirees tax; and small-business owners, who own small retail shops, who own cafes and who might employ one or two people. Dr Aly interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Hogan ): The member for Cowan is warned. Mr SUKKAR: These are the people that this Shadow Treasurer is going after. Again, today he stands up and he says to 10 million Australians, 'You don't deserve a tax cut, and we're not going to give it to you.' We always knew the shadow Treasurer was going to find an excuse. We knew that in his DNA he did not want to provide or assist us— Ms Husar interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Lindsay is warned. Mr SUKKAR: in providing tax relief for hardworking Australians. We always knew he'd find an excuse, and luckily he found it. Ms Husar interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Lindsay will remove herself under 94(a). The member for Lindsay then left the chamber. Mr SUKKAR: Today he had to front up and say to 10 million Australians, 'No, you are not getting any more tax relief.' On this side of the House, for hardworking Australians, for those who are on low and middle incomes, this government has delivered in spades and will continue to do so. Last year, we had 415,000 new jobs created. The shadow Treasurer said five years ago that there was absolutely no way the coalition commitment of one million jobs within the first five years could be met. Well, no: we met it in 4½ years. Mr Bowen interjecting— Mr SUKKAR: Are you denying it? Is the shadow Treasurer denying that he— Mr Bowen interjecting— Mr SUKKAR: The shadow Treasurer believed us. Well, that's wonderful. If the shadow Treasurer believed in that commitment, he should walk out of this chamber, do a press conference and say, 'I always believed that the coalition government could deliver it,' but we know that he didn't. We know he said it was impossible, and last year 415,000 jobs were created. Every single one of those people—and let's remember, nearly 80 per cent of those jobs were full time—are better off because of the decisions made by this government. Now we've got the shadow Treasurer saying to 10 million of them—4.4 million of them who will receive the full tax benefit of $530 and the remainder getting up to $530—that they don't deserve a tax cut. How on earth can the shadow Treasurer justify to those people that they don't deserve it, in addition to every other policy of this shadow Treasurer that seeks to hurt those individuals. This shadow Treasurer's capitulated on energy policy. He's capitulated to the 50 per cent Renewable Energy Target as outlined by the shadow environment minister, which is just going to see energy prices rise further and further and further. This shadow Treasurer, sadly, has form. We knew the shadow Treasurer when he was in the Gillard-Rudd governments, as the worst immigration minister that this country's ever seen—even worse than the Manager of Opposition Business, which is a pretty high bar. But then he went on to become shadow Treasurer, and we all remember the very infamous coined term of the 'Bowen $16 billion black hole'. Now we've seen a black hole again. This week we saw a very, very big black hole from the shadow Treasurer. We remember a couple of months ago when the shadow Treasurer said: 'We have a very calibrated, well-thought-through policy on our retirees tax. It's very calibrated and it's very well thought through'. Then the shadow Treasurer, within a fortnight, backflipped. This well-thought-through, well-calibrated policy was changed on the run. Now, again, we see that the shadow Treasurer's been caught out with a huge black hole in his costings. But we're used to that from him. We're used to that from when he was the Treasurer—$16 billion. Now we see it again, with $1.1 billion over the forward estimates. It isn't a surprise from this shadow Treasurer, because we see it time and time again. We say to the shadow Treasurer: come clean on your approach to small businesses. We know the shadow Treasurer refers to the owner of a small cafe that employs one or two people or a hairdresser that employs a couple of staff as a millionaire or billionaire who doesn't deserve a tax cut. The shadow Treasurer is going to go to the next election and say: 'We're denying 10 million Australians a tax cut. We're going to reach our hands into the pockets of retirees, people who are on low incomes, and reduce their income by up to 25 per cent by denying them refunds on franking credits. We're going to increase taxes on small and medium businesses.' Ms Butler interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Griffith! Mr SUKKAR: This is the shadow Treasurer who runs around saying that he's going to attack large businesses and go after the top end of town. Well, he's not going after the top end of town; he's going after these hardworking Australians that he's referring to in this MPI. The shadow Treasurer, in his contribution, referred to the top 20 per cent of taxpayers. How much does the shadow Treasurer believe that the top 20 per cent of taxpayers should actually pay? The top 23 per cent of taxpayers pay 65 per cent of all tax. How much more should they be paying? The shadow Treasurer never says that, because that would require him to go out and say to people who are getting up at 6 am every day, working hard, missing out on family obligations, saving and trying to do things for their family: 'You're not contributing enough and you don't deserve a tax cut.' How much do you want those 23 per cent of people to pay? Or, if we talk about the next 53 per cent, who pay another third of the income tax, that 70 per cent of Australians carry our tax system, and the shadow Treasurer got up today and said: 'You do not deserve a tax cut. In fact, you're not paying your fair share, and we're going to go after you a bit more.' In the end, the shadow Treasurer has spent two years running around this country, saying, 'We're going after the bad millionaires, the bad billionaires and the big multinationals,' and what's it all boiled down to? It's boiled down to him attacking working Australians on low and medium incomes, going after retirees, people who are on low incomes, and denying them up to a quarter of their income— Ms Butler interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Griffith! Mr SUKKAR: and going after small family businesses, people who might have one or two employees and treat them more like family than staff. He's saying to them, 'No, you don't deserve a tax cut either.' This shadow Treasurer is so divorced from what ordinary working Australians need that he thinks they don't deserve tax cuts—in fact, they should contribute a bit more because, apparently, carrying the whole system is not enough for those 70 per cent of taxpayers. And, in addition, to top it all off, they should be paying higher electricity costs in order to fund mad green schemes, because Labor has capitulated to the Left. On this side of the House, we will always fight for those people who want to strive hard, who have aspiration and who want to do better for their families. (Time expired)