In response to the Treasurer's vow today that payments will start to fall in this year's Budget and his recent calls for any new spending to be offset by cuts, the Greens have warned Labor that the government cannot rely on the party to pass Budget cuts in the Senate to help make room for the over a quarter of a trillion dollars cost of the Stage 3 tax cuts.
The warning comes after the Greens disallowed Labor's superannuation regulations in the Senate and made it clear that the party is prepared to use its Senate power to block Labor measures it disagrees with.
The Treasurer wrote in The Australian today that 'payments will fall in real terms over the next two years'.
Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP said:
"Labor must not cut people's payments to help fund Stage 3 tax cuts for politicians and billionaires.
"People need real cost of living relief, like getting dental into Medicare, but Labor is cutting payments to make room in the Budget for a quarter of a trillion dollars in Stage 3 tax cuts for the wealthy.
"Labor's push to cut spending while giving tax cuts to politicians and billionaires shows the government is shifting to the centre-right, leaving the Greens the country's only social democratic party."
Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Nick McKim, who led the Greens' in blocking Labor's superannuation regulations after the government caved in to the banks and reneged on a promise to introduce million dollar fines for bankers, said:
"If the Treasurer's 'values based capitalism' includes tax cuts for the rich while cutting payments for everyone else, the Greens won't have a bar of it."
"If the Treasurer wants to find room in the Budget to give people real cost of living relief, he should start with axing the unfair and unsustainable Stage 3 tax cuts."
"The Greens will use balance of power in the Senate to push Labor to freeze electricity bills and get dental into Medicare, funded by getting rid of the Stage 3 tax cuts to politicians and billionaires."
