Television interview - Sky News Afternoon Agenda with Tom Connell

TOM CONNELL, HOST: Happy Australia Day, Patrick Gorman. So many awardees; who inspired you the most?

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE:  Happy Australia Day, Tom, and Happy Australia Day to your viewers. For me, my mum and dad are both primary school teachers, so Yalmay Yunupiŋu, her award, recognising forty years as a teacher. Teaching children in their own language, that cross-cultural education; that really spoke to me. And obviously I've got my hat on today, as you do, so gold star to both of us. The work that Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer have done in terms of not just treating melanoma, but also reminding us to do what we have done for years. That is: slip, slop, slap, wear a hat, prevention is better than cure. And obviously, sadly, melanoma is one of our national cancers, and we can do so much to prevent it.

CONNELL: Probably hasn't come down like a lot of other cancers have. And that message around a 'healthy tan,' I mean, it speaks to people like you and me who cannot get a tan for love nor money. But it is a serious one because there's still this culture of saying, 'Gee, you look good after your holiday’ if you're 'nice and brown.'

GORMAN: Yeah, well, as they said last night at the Australian of the Year Awards, a tan is skin in distress. So, we need to think, and particularly on Australia Day, as many of us are enjoying this beautiful country in the middle of summer; remember that you need to prevent your skin from getting that distress. We can do so much to look after ourselves. It's good for our health system, it's good for our own health. And it means we live long, healthy lives in the best country in the world.

CONNELL: I'm sure there will be a barbecue somewhere that you'll be off to and the barbecue’s talk today, I'm sure, will be stage three tax cuts. So, people out there that are saying, ‘well, has the government has admitted it's at least a broken promise?’ But before we talk about the policy element, it is a broken promise, isn't it?

GORMAN: This is a better package. It's the right tax policy for the challenges Australia faces. And it's a better cost of living package. Now, for those people who are at Australia Day barbecues across the country, or one of the 640 events sponsored by the Australian Government and the National Australia Day Council, yeah, I'm sure they will talk about tax policy. I mean, who doesn't want to spend your public holiday talking about tax policy? But if you think about it, 84% of taxpayers at those barbecues will be better off under this plan. That's a pretty good thing to be talking about, on Australia Day when we are in the middle of huge cost of living pressures. We take responsibility for doing something about it. And that's what we've done.

CONNELL: Part of that responsibility, though, doesn't it have to be that 'yes, we broke a promise'? Because wasn’t that pretty clear? There was no wriggle room before the 2022 election, was there, on stage three? You were supporting it. Now you're not. That’s a broken promise, isn't it?

GORMAN: We've been really clear with the Australian people why we changed our position, why we went to this new package of tax cuts. Because we know that families are doing it tough. We want to give people more tax relief. And that's the decision we've made. The Prime Minister has been open about that. He stood up with yourself and your colleagues at the National Press Club, he’s explained why we've made that different decision. I'll be out there explaining to the community, and at some Australia Day events today I'm sure if people ask me, I'll tell them why we came to that conclusion. I'll be holding mobile offices in my electorate, over the weeks and months ahead to talk to my community. I know that's what my Labor colleagues will be doing. That's what being a responsible government is about. We take that responsibility seriously.

CONNELL: But it's still a different way of describing it: ‘that’s why we took the position, that’s why we changed our position; we’re being upfront.’ Why not say 'broken promise?' Is that something you think voters will punish you for if you say those words?

GORMAN: I’ve got great faith in the Australian people, that they will see why we've changed our position. They'll see the circumstances that have emerged over the course of last year that meant that we needed to have a smarter, more carefully calibrated tax package. And I said, myself, the Prime Minister, all of my colleagues are very comfortable going out there, explaining to people why we want to give more people a tax cut, more people in those lower tax brackets, a larger tax cut to support working Australians. That's the right thing to do for the challenges we face. It's the biggest and best way to get cost of living relief to the Australian people. That’s what they’ve been asking us to do.

CONNELL: The other aspect of this, though, is how late it's been, relatively speaking. So they were legislated – I think the tax cuts were five years or so - this is about five months. So people would have been doing budgets over the summer. To a family that might have had a couple of earners on $150,000 or so and are worse off and have to redo their budget - do you apologise?

GORMAN: Well, I think you're right, a lot of people do do their budgets for the new calendar year over summer. Most of the families, 84% of them across Australia, 80% in my electorate, when they sit down and revise their budgets and look at the tax calculator they can see on the Treasury website, they'll see that actually, they're better off under this plan.

CONNELL: But I'm talking about the ones who are not - do you apologise to them? They’ll be redoing budgets right now.

GORMAN: I'll be happy to talk to people who get a different tax cut. Explain why we've come to that conclusion. And also explain that this isn't just about benefiting more Australian taxpayers; it's also about doing the right thing for the national economy. What we know is that if you can get cost of living relief to people, that reduces the strain on a range of government services. It’s the best way to help people out when they're facing those challenges. And it’s the most effective way to set tax policy. You asked about five months out; obviously, at the start of this year, we start that process, leading into considering Budget proposals and things, the Prime Minister outlined that. The Expenditure Review Committee has been meeting -

CONNELL: - It’s a bit of a different one, given how long, but I understand, you know, it is, usual Budget lead up. The reason why this is touted as affordable, it actually brings in $28 billion more over the ten years. I mean that’s more bracket creep isn’t it? Is the next item on the agenda right now - I mean right now it’s not affordable or not right to get rid of that 37% bracket - will that go ultimately? Is that the next cab off the rank, if you like?

GORMAN: We're talking about a package that we released yesterday. Obviously, I’m not going to speculate about future tax policy. What I’ll talk about today is the tax plan that we have put forward -

CONNELL: But that's obviously the next one that didn't go ahead. Would you see that as the next logical cohort, and you'd say not now, but later? As a principle at least?

GORMAN: Well, I think as a principle, if you want to talk about what’s the principle of these tax cuts, it’s going to be about doing the most we possibly can to support middle Australia. And, again, that’s how we framed this, how we’ve explained it to people at the Press Club yesterday and how I'll be talking to my community. And as middle Australia is people like teachers, nurses, police officers, people who work at Coles and Woollies; all of those people who keep our community and our economy running, they're the ones that we're working to ensure get a tax cut out of this package, and we’re being really open to people that we have had a change, but that more people will benefit from that change, the our economy and the society in which we all work will benefit.