1st Dec 2015, 6:00 PM – Representatives Labor 2013-14 Budget Savings (Measures No. 2) Bill 2015 - Second Reading - Agree to the bill's main idea

The majority agreed with the main idea of the bill. In parliamentary jargon, they agreed to give the bill a second reading. This means that the House can now discuss the bill in more detail.

Bill's main idea

The main idea of the bill is to undo some of the measures that haven't yet begun but were introduced under the previous Labor Government's 2013-14 Budget. That is, it repeals all the parts of the Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates Amendments) Act 2011 and the Clean Energy (Tax Laws Amendments) Act 2011 that were meant to begin at a future date. The bill doesn't repeal any parts of those two Acts that are already in operation.

What exactly does the bill do?

According to the bills digest, the bill will:

• "repeal an increase in the nominal tax-free threshold from $18,200 in 2014–15 to $19,400 in 2015–16
• maintain the second personal marginal tax rate at 32.5 per cent rather than increase it to 33 per cent from 2015–16
• maintain the maximum value of the low income tax offset (LITO) at $445 rather than change the maximum value of the LITO to $300 from 2015–16 and
• maintain the threshold below which a person may receive LITO at a taxable income of $66,667 and the withdrawal rate at 1.5 per cent, rather than the income threshold increasing to $67,000 and the withdrawal rate falling to 1 per cent from 2015–16."