Here is a bit more of what Angus Taylor had to say today about the tax cuts.

He told Sydney radio 2GB:

They’re an election bribe, not a tax cut. They are a cruel hoax on the Australian people, where what we really need is an economy that works for hardworking Australians. We’ve seen the biggest collapse in our standard of living since the records began actually, in the 1950s. Worse than any of our peer countries across the world and what we get from Labor is the answer is 70 cents a day in a year’s time. I mean, seriously, what can you buy with 70 cents? I mean, not much, a few lollies maybe? I don’t know, but the truth is that Labor has failed us on the economy. The answer to this is strong economic management. That means beating inflation, boosting growth, fixing our housing supply, balancing housing with immigration, delivering affordable, reliable energy. We know how to do these things. It’s getting back to basics, to get back on track, but you won’t get that under Labor.

And asked what he would do he said:

What we need is standard of living relief, cost of living relief. We need a genuine underlying a solution to the problem rather than just another band aid on a bullet wound, and that that will continue to be our focus.

He promised that on Thursday, when he does his budget in reply speech, Peter Dutton will deal “with the underlying problems here, delivering affordable, reliable energy”.

And then asked: ‘so no tax cuts” said:

We need to balance immigration with our housing supply (this is just a random line – not at all related to the questions), and on tax, the best way to make sure people don’t pay more tax is to beat inflation because we’ve seen the average Australian pay $3,500 more in personal income tax despite the so called ‘tax cuts’. Well, these aren’t real tax cuts, let’s be clear, because people are paying more tax because inflation has been too high under Labor.

Which appears to be a very different thing to what he was saying last night, when he was saying that the Coalition supported tax cuts, but not these tax cuts (which the Coalition followed through on by not voting for the Labor tax cuts today).

The thing is, as Grog’s has pointed out numerous times, the $3,500 that Taylor is talking about there is because a) we have had pay rises and therefore are earning more and as a result are paying more in tax and b) the loss of the low and middle income tax offset that the COALITION PHASED OUT.

People aren’t paying more tax because of inflation. They are not paying more tax because of migration. They are not paying more tax because of energy prices (the Coalition also voted against the rebates). They are paying more tax because of PAY RISES and THE COALITION PHASE OUT OF THE LMITO.

The opposition are running hard on how little this tax cut is and how it won’t help average Australians.

What they are not mentioning is that if the government had kept the Old Stage 3, then by the time these new tax cuts are in place, everyone earning less than $154,000 would be worse off.

The latest monthly inflation figures came out today showing that in the year to February inflation rose just 2.4% – so in the bottom half of the RBA’s target range of 2% to 3%.

One of the big drops is the cost of building a new house – that rose just 1.6%. That is the lowest rise since May 2021. It’s also important because it is an aspect the RBA looks at and really the RBA should be cutting rates next week, because let’s be clear – the battle against inflation is won.

Also interestingly given there were a few conservatives last year calling for higher interest rate like they had in the USA, well inflation is now lower than in the USA – and it has come down faster than in the USA as well.

In the house, Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown asks:

Australia’s biggest environmental organisation the Australian Conservation Foundation says you’re cutting of environmental laws with the Coalition today is a sell-out and means of nature is more poorly protected at the end of the Albanese government’s 3-year turn another start of it. Was the environment better protected under Scott Morrison than you and why has your government sold out the climate and environment?

Anthony Albanese:

I thank the member for her question and identifying a preference for Scott Morrison as prime minister. Compared with the Labor government that has put in place measures for the most serious climate change policy ever put in place by any Australian government in history. A40 3% target by 2030 with mechanisms to get there, the Safeguard mechanisms. The capacity investment scheme, the solar Sunshine program, hydrogen Headstart, all of these programs for batteries, the national restructuring fund to drive these through. Programs are critical minerals and rare earths through our production tax credits but they have the hide to coming here suggest that Scott Morrison, you may well have been the environment minister as well, that is possible.

We can’t rule that out. So much contempt he had for the environment that when he made himself treasurer, Finance Minister, industry Minister and everything else, he forgot to appoint himself as environment minister. That is how much contempt he had for the environment. We have protected, just on a Saturday, and extra 100 million hectares of Aussie ocean and bush, some $250 million program announced by our environment Minister in the budget to meet our commitment to protect 30% of Australia’s landmass by 2030.

That is what we have we have quadrupled the site of Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Park, the biggest acts of ocean conservation on the planet anywhere in the world in 2024. We have tripled the size of Macquarie Island Marine Park and blocked proposals like Clive Palmer big Queensland coalmine. We have doubled funding to better look after national parks, including Kakadu and Uluru and we are working with first Nations ranges to deliver that protection of the environment, taking account of 65,000 years of knowledge. We have throughout our environment invested $550 million to better protect our threatened plants and animals and to tackle the feral animals and weeds killing a native species. When it comes to the urban environment, we have our urban rivers program. We have a comprehensive plan and what’s more, a lot of it would have been implemented earlier if the Greens had just voted for it.

Here is the moment Sarah Hanson-Young shocked the senate with a dead salmon in the chamber. Which almost caused the Liberal’s Michaelia Cash to choke.

Well, that certainly spiced things up!

It is the last senate question time of the parliament, as the senate moves into estimates tomorrow, so the gloves are off.

You can read more about the laws Sarah Hanson-Young was criticising, here.

Just moving to the senate for a moment where Sarah Hanson-Young held up a dead salmon in the senate while asking the government why it is passing the environment-destroying laws which will condemn the Maugean Skate to extinction.

This is after Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson fronted up to the prime minister this morning while leaving the gym and “told them they were a pack of mongrels”.

“I’m pretty bloody angry about this, it’s the lowest thing I’ve seen in my 14 years as a senator,” he said.

“I would regret it more in my life if I didn’t tell the prime minister what I thought and give him an earful – which he bloody well deserves.”

Hanson-Young:

The Prime Minister has stitched up a deal with Mr Dutton to gut our environment laws, all in the name of a toxic, polluting salmon industry. Labor came into government promising to strengthen our environment laws. Isn’t it true that once these laws pass this place tonight, environment laws in this country will be weaker than they are when they were when you took government

The government accused the Greens of just seeking to divide for votes.

Hanson-Young asked again:

Now that the rotting, toxic salmon industry has a carve out from environment laws, what toxic industry will be next? Coal, gas, more forestry? Tell us who will get the next carve out under your government.

There is no real answer.

Hanson-Young then holds up a dead fish.

The Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Marine Conservation Society, WWF, the Australia Institute have all condemned these laws on the eve of the election. Have you sold out your environment credentials for a stinky, rotten fish?

The senate loses it. Michaelia Cash is laughing so hard someone might need to get her a doctor. Hanson-Young is told to remove “the prop” from the chamber.

This was Jim Chalmers’ answer:

It hasn’t dawned on the Shadow Treasurer that he is asking that question on the same day that he voted against tax cuts for every Australian worker. If the Shadow Treasurer again you Yunly cared about cost of living pressures and living standards in our economy he would have voted for our tax cuts but instead, he voted against those tax cuts. This was the consequence of the brain snap that the Shadow Treasurer had in Budget lock-up yesterday, when he decided in the face of these cost of living pressures, to recommend to his backbench that they vote against a tax cut for every Australian worker to help them with the cost of living.

That is why they’re all looking at their phones and their shoes because they know, once again, that the Shadow Treasurer’s been found out and he has been found wanting. This is why one of them described the Shadow Treasurer to The Australian as a “Dead weight”. I couldn’t agree more. What the Budget is all about is providing cost of living relief, cutting taxes for every Australian taxpayer, strengthening Medicare and building Australia’s future. It’s disappointing but not surprising to see that they voted against our tax cuts because whenever we have tried to help Australians with the cost of living, they have tried to prevent it.

As we get closer and closer to this election when the Prime Minister calls it, Australians will have a very clear choice – this Labor Government and this Prime Minister, cutting taxes for every taxpayer and helping Australians with the cost of living, or that Opposition Leader, who has a secret agenda for cuts, which will make Australians worse off.

As the Prime Minister said before, and I couldn’t agree more, this Opposition Leader wants to cut everything except taxes for workers in our economy. How dare they come up here and ask about living standards and ask about inflation, when they left us inflation multiples of what it is now and rising fast and we have got inflation down.

Another reason, in addition to the brain snap vote against tax cuts in the parliament this morning, the other reason that this question from the Shadow Treasurer is characteristically hand-fisted is because we got new inflation data today actually about 11.30. What that shows is inflation is down again – headline inflation is down again, underlying inflation is down again. It is a fraction of what we inherited from those opposite, so spare us the lectures about inflation and living standards, if you really cared about the cost of living, you would have voted for our tax cuts, instead you voted for higher taxes on every Australian worker. Well done.

Then there is this from Angus Taylor:

The Prime Minister’s cruel hoax of a Budget offers cash-strapped Australian families 70 cents a day in 15 months time. Prime Minister, when Australians with a mortgage are $50,000 worse off under Labor, isn’t this a Budget for the next five weeks not the next five years?

Don’t be surprised if the Coalition comes up with their own tax cut promises tomorrow, but Greg Jericho has looked at the numbers and can’t see how that would happen without massive cuts.

The opposition is right in that this budget is designed for the election campaign – you are already seeing the lines – three years of tax cuts, energy rebates, investing in the future yadda, yadda, which will be what the election campaign shapes up around.

But it is equally true that what the Coalition is offering is a fantasy. There is nothing behind its headlines and those policies it does manage to throw up get contradicted by its own members within 24 hours.

We all needed a bit of a long break there.

Having a look at the vote to pass the tax cuts (which the Coalition opposed) Andrew Hastie and David Coleman were both absent. Given Hastie’s future leadership ambitions, that seems unusual.

Also, the commentary around the salmon bill really needs to catch up. Journalists keep repeating ‘it’s just about jobs’ meaning the salmon industry jobs. Which has been revealed to be 60. Six. Zero.

This is not about jobs. Talk to any independent Tasmanian MP and they will tell you that locals don’t want the industry to be able to use Tasmania’s coastline for this – they would like to see the industry taken off shore.

But the salmon industry uses the jobs line so it becomes one of those ‘truisms’. The facts are there – you just have to look.

Meanwhile, this is an example of some of the analysis we are being offered: “I’m told the Coalition today will essentially be laying out why people are worse off under the Albanese government that they were three years ago.”

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The questions meanwhile, are playing out as you would expect.

Peter Dutton:

“My question is to the Prime Minister. Given last night’s cruel hoax of a Budget, can the Prime Minister explain how struggling Australians, by giving them just 70 cents a day in 15 months time is going to help them with their mortgage, energy, insurance and grocery bills today?”

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