Anika Wells MP on Weekend Sunrise

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
SUNRISE

SATURDAY, 3 FEBRUARY 2024

SUBJECTS: Stage 3 Tax Cuts

HOST MATT DORAN: Well, joining us now is the Minister for Aged Care and Sport, Anika Wells, good morning. So firstly do you think they're going to come to the party here and support the change or what have you heard at this stage from the opposition? 

MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND SPORT, ANIKA WELLS: I certainly hope so because I did a mobile office at Stafford City Shops earlier this week, and people were coming up to me to say thank you for doing it. Please get it done as quickly as possible. Sowe would welcome the liberals acting quickly on this and agreeing to get this through so that people could get tax cut relief on 1st July. 

HOST MONIQUE WRIGHT: You don't need the opposition's support though, right? You've got enough with the Greens and independents. 

WELLS: Well, we don't have the Greens. I'm reading the papers like yourself. They're prevaricating. They're sending it off to a parliamentary inquiry. They want to add an absolute raft of amendments on various other grievances they've got elsewhere. I mean, they're all over the shop like a bad toupee, to be honest. And I would welcome some clarity from the greens about what they're going to do. But I think Australians are disappointed when people like the Greens use the opportunity to play politics with things that are really important, rather than just get things done. 

DORAN: What's your view, Minister, on the damage that will be done with regards to Anthony Albanese breaking his promise?

WELLS: Like I said, I went to Stafford City shops earlier this week to get a sense from my constituents about this and how they're feeling generally. And the number one most important issue for everybody is cost of living and getting some relief from that. So genuinely, the feedback that I got were people saying, thank you for doing something, please do it as quickly as possible. And to be honest, the word commonsense was thrown around a lot because this is actually an example of a government that is listening. We have been listening to people now for 18 months say cost of living is harder and harder for us to face. We had a tax cut policy that Scott Morrison legislated five years ago. Now, you know, we'd all agree that the economic circumstances we're all in have changed hugely since 2019. So in the end, this was an opportunity to do things a better way and to acknowledge that Australians are feeling the pinch. And now every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut on 1 July.

WRIGHT: It is a massive broken promise though, isn't it? Behind closed doors… how concerned is the government that this is going to be remembered on election day? Or are you just trusting tax benefit will be for the vast majority of Australians, that will be putting ourselves first and thinking, oh well, it helped me in the long run…so it doesn't matter that there was this massive, broken promise when we met last week in Canberra as a Labor government. 

WELLS: People had been asking any government, and us as the federal government, to do more and to pull every lever about cost of living. And here we had before us a lever to pull. When we were in Canberra last week to talk this through, We had tax cuts that were due to come in for 1st July, where it would give, you know, the politicians in Canberra a generous tax cut where other working Australians would miss out entirety. So I think in this instance, given the economic circumstances, the global inflationary cycle we're in, given the price of groceries and the pressure that everybody is under, it was more important for us to listen and respond to that than anything else. 

WRIGHT: Okay, can we just double down before we let you go… about the chances of this getting through this week. Do you believe that you've got the opposition? And I know we just talked about the Greens, but it would be truly extraordinary, inconceivable almost, if they blocked it, given how long they've been asking for this kind of relief for low and middle income families. So what is the likelihood that it's going to get through this week? 

WELLS: I read that the Greens of the Libs want to send this off to an inquiry. I read the Greens and the Libs want to put a million amendments onto this, rather than just getting it done. Some people come to Canberra to knit socks for centipedes, some people come to get things done. We want to get this done. 

DORAN: Knit socks for centipedes!

WRIGHT: That's time consuming. 

DORAN: It's a goodie. That one. Thank you Minister. Great to chat.