Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering an Efficient and Trusted Tax System)

“That these bills be now read a second time.”

Australian Labor Party • Senator • 22 June 2026

“Schedule 1 of this bill is a clear example of practical support for the charity and not-for-profit sector. It removes the requirement that a gift to a deductible gift recipient must be valued at $2 or more before a taxpayer can claim a deduction. That threshold has been in place since 1927, reflecting a very different era, when issuing receipts and keeping records was a manual process and the mechanics of giving looked nothing like they do today. That world has changed, and these changes enable our laws to catch up with that reality. They treat donations equally regardless of size, support innovation in fundraising and remove a threshold that no longer reflects how Australians contribute.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 01 Apr 2026

“This particular bill also ensures that there's relief for people in the budget, particularly those that are paying the Medicare levy at lower rates of income. Schedule 5 of this bill increases the Medicare levy for low-income thresholds for singles, families, seniors and pensioners to 2.9 per cent, in line with recent movements in the consumer price index. This ensures that low-income households continue to be exempt from paying the Medicare levy or pay it at a reduced rate if their incomes have increased, in line with or less than inflation. It's a simple, fair adjustment that protects those who can least afford additional costs. Successive governments have increased these thresholds in line with CPI since 1997, and it's a longstanding practice that ensures that the Medicare levy remains progressive and equitable. More than a million low-income earners are expected to benefit from these increases in 2025-26. It's a practical example of how we're easing pressure on household budgets while maintaining the integrity of our healthcare system.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 28 May 2026

“Schedule 5 of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering an Efficient and Trusted Tax System) Bill 2026 implements an increase to the Medicare levy low-income thresholds. This amends the Medicare Levy Act 1986 and the A New Tax System (Medicare Levy Surcharge—Fringe Benefits) Act 1999. It will increase the thresholds for singles, families, seniors and pensioners by 2.9 per cent, in line with recent movements in the consumer price index. These changes will mean that Australians on lower incomes will continue to receive important protections when it comes to the Medicare levy.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 28 May 2026

“I'm pleased to have shared the nature of schedule 4 to this bill with the chamber. There's a lot going on in this parliament at the moment, and I understand everyone wants to talk about the budget, but the details contained in this bill will have a significantly positive effect on the community. They take away the ability to research gambling and tobacco related activities and place an emphasis on harm minimisation. It is initiatives like this that do deserve to be highlighted and spoken about in this chamber, as they form part of the government's dedicated efforts towards improving harm minimisation. I commend the bill to the House.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 28 May 2026

“This bill is what good economic management looks like. Labor has never believed that productivity comes from making life harder for working people. It comes from building systems that are fair, straightforward and easy to deal with. When people trust the system and can navigate it more easily, the whole economy works better. We've seen the alternative—the belief in a trickle-down economy—that far too often ends up leaving people to fend for themselves. But for Labor, our economic mission is simple: to build an economy that rewards work, values contribution and leaves no-one behind, an economy that works not just on a spreadsheet but in working people's lives. I commend the bill.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 01 Apr 2026

“The challenge at the moment, though, is that round-up for charity isn't tax deductible, even though, over the course of a year, people may find themselves giving quite a considerable amount to charity. That's the advantage of what the government is doing today. Organisations that consolidate somebody's giving would be able to produce an end-of-year tax-deductible statement which would allow people to claim all of those 19c, 37c and 57c donations they'd made through the course of the year, which might, by the end of the year, add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. By encouraging microdonations, we're helping to achieve the government's goal of making it easier to give. My three principles for giving are that we need to have evidence, we need to have enthusiasm and we need to make it easy to donate, and this is one way, alongside simplifying donations through workplace giving and simplifying bequests, that the government is supporting the charity sector. It is a recommendation of the Productivity Commission's Future foundations for giving report that the government remove the $2 threshold for tax-deductible donations to entities with deductible gift recipient status, and this will help form part of the government's response to that report and to the blueprint report.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 01 Apr 2026

“This legislation provides practical support to the government's goal of doubling that giving amount by the year 2030. As the member for Griffith talked about, it's those small little round-up donations that end up adding up to a lot of money, so this legislation is going to really supercharge the efforts which are exemplified by people like Charlie and Jenny and Josh and Dan.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 01 Apr 2026

“It's wonderful to be speaking on this legislation, which we are not opposing, but I say so in the context that it's always amusing to hear Labor members of parliament get up and speak about the relevance of legislation to their electorate, while they repeat the same talking points that every other Labor member of parliament repeats, but it rarely operates in reality. We just heard about how productivity has been tickety boo under this government, which is why the Treasurer called a crisis conference on productivity and a roundtable to bring together Australia's leading business minds, plus the ACTU, to come up with a solution to the productivity crisis that apparently doesn't exist because productivity is tickety boo.”

Liberal Party • MP • 01 Apr 2026

“The coalition is not opposing this bill—the Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering an Efficient and Trusted Tax System) Bill 2026—in this chamber, but in the Senate we are looking to refer it to the economics committee for further scrutiny. The bill contains a range of technical tax measures. Many of the measures are sensible and many of them are non-controversial. The most significant part of this bill is the exclusion of tobacco and gambling activities from the research and development, or R&D, tax incentives. When we look at this measure, we're not necessarily opposed to it but we do want closer scrutiny.”

National Party • MP • 01 Apr 2026