Member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, has welcomed the Coalition Government’s delivery on income tax relief for all Australian workers.

In passing our Personal Income Tax plan through the Parliament, the Government has ensured all Australians paying tax will be better off. They will be paying less tax, and will be rewarded for their hard work, both now and into the future.

“Taxes in regional Australia will now be lower, fairer and simpler with 56,982 people and their families in my electorate of New England set to benefit from low and middle income tax relief in 2018-19,” Mr Joyce said.

“This is a win for all working Australians who want to get ahead. You will have the certainty that when you earn more, get a pay rise or work more hours, you won’t face increasing tax.

 “In contrast to the Labor Party, the Coalition’s plan is not about creating winners and losers. We are not putting up taxes on some Australians to pay for tax relief for other Australians,” Mr Joyce said.

“The Labor Party stands for higher taxes on all Australian wage earners and higher taxes on the businesses that employ them.

“By pledging to reverse steps 2 and 3 of our now legislated tax cuts, Labor has admitted it will rip $70 billion in extra income tax from working Australians’ pay packets over the next 10 years. Under Labor, Australians will work for our tax system.

“Under the Coalition Government’s plan, 94 per cent of Australian workers will not face higher marginal tax rate of more than 32.5c in the dollar, with the first priority low and middle income earners – that is our commitment to you.”

 Our legislated plan has three steps:

One.    Tax relief for middle and low income earners now. In 2018-19, over 10 million Australians will get tax relief, with 4.4 million Australians receiving the full $530 benefit.

Two.    Lifting tax brackets, to protect Australians from the impact of ‘bracket creep’, taking the $87,000 tax threshold to $90,000 in 2018-19 and then to $120,000 in 2022-23. Tax relief provided under the offset in step 1 will also be locked in from 2022-23 by taking the $37,000 tax threshold to $41,000, and lifting the low income tax offset to $645.

Three. Ensuring more Australians pay less tax by making personal taxes simpler, removing an entire tax bracket, that will mean around 94 per cent of taxpayers are projected to face a tax rate of 32.5

per cent or less.

(ENDS)