Legislation to change the stage three tax cuts will be considered in party room meetings today, before the government brings it to parliament tomorrow. The government is yet to secure enough support to ensure it passes.
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00:00 The federal government made the legislation public yesterday with the Greens and the Coalition
00:07 party room set to meet to come to their decision on where they stand on these stage three tax
00:12 cut changes, which in their current form mainly benefit higher income earners, but under the
00:18 changes will help benefit and give a bigger tax cut to low and middle income earners.
00:23 Now, the coalition say they're worried about things like bracket creep and also have said
00:28 that they've been touting that this is a broken promise.
00:31 They've been very focused on that.
00:33 That's not something that Labor is entirely shying away from saying that this was about
00:37 people, not politics.
00:39 And from the Greens perspective, they say that this is still not fair enough.
00:43 They've indicated that they're willing to negotiate on this, but they want to see more
00:46 done for struggling Australians, including hinting at some changes to JobSeeker.
00:52 Now, we did hear from the shadow minister, shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, a little
00:56 earlier today.
00:57 Here's what she had to say.
01:00 I think Australians do care about broken promises.
01:02 They've said that they would like the tax cut.
01:04 Of course they want a tax cut.
01:07 When you're doing it tough, you will reach for any assistance that can that they can
01:11 get.
01:12 But will they be bought?
01:15 Will they have their integrity sold to them for $15 a week?
01:18 I don't think so.
01:20 So Chantelle, where does that leave the government?
01:22 Well, some crossbenchers have flagged that they would like to see a Senate inquiry into
01:27 these changes.
01:28 We did hear from Treasurer Jim Chalmers a little earlier.
01:31 He's indicated that he's unwilling to accept something like that, considering that he's
01:36 saying that these changes are already well known.
01:39 The impact of these changes are well known.
01:42 Here's what he had to say to News Breakfast a little earlier.
01:45 The coalition has the legislation.
01:48 They have the details.
01:49 They have no more excuses.
01:51 And I say to the coalition and I say to the Greens, don't stand in the way of a bigger
01:57 tax cut for more workers to help with the cost of living.
02:01 Now if the government doesn't have the support of the coalition, they will need the Greens
02:04 and at least two crossbenchers.
02:06 We did hear from Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie a little earlier today.
02:10 She's indicated that she will support these changes and said that it's common sense that
02:14 the Liberal Party supports it too.
02:16 Either way, the Prime Minister says he'd like to have these changes in law before Easter.
02:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]