Australia politics live: Anthony Albanese says tax reforms ‘make system fairer’ and backs Paul Hogan on Pauline Hanson
The prime minister tells 7.30 the housing market was ‘broken’. Follow today’s news live
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The prime minister also used his 7.30 appearance to push back against Pauline Hanson’s advocacy for a “monocultural” society, describing multiculturalism as “who we are as Australians” and shouted out Paul Hogan after the veteran actor called the One Nation leader a “pelican”.
Albanese had been asked to define multiculturalism, as many politicians have been pressed by journalists to do since Hanson’s address at the National Press Club (with varying levels of competency, Andrew Hastie called it an ‘extreme’ and politically loaded word’).
It’s who we are as Australians, and I thought that Paul Hogan nailed it today as well. We’ve never been a monocultural society … We are a modern country that is multicultural in our nature. That means that we have respect for each other.
What my job is to do is to represent the national interest. That’s what I do to respect every voter … Pauline Hanson has a long political career. But we have seen the rise of populist right wing parties throughout the Western world.
What is important is that last Saturday, when people went to buy their own home … they weren’t competing against investors who knew that if they could bid an extra $20,000, or $50,000, then taxpayers would essentially be subsidising that by increased deductions.
This is about making the system fairer … We know there’s been a 400% increase in house prices since 1999 – more than double than wages, and that’s why we couldn’t continue to sit back and not pursue this reform … We’ve seen home ownership rates drop for younger Australians. And I don’t want to live in a society that’s defined by intergenerational inequity.”
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