The Greens won't support cuts to company and personal income tax, with leader Richard Di Natale saying
Treasurer Scott Morrison's first budget had delivered election bribes for the wealthy while entrenching inequality in Australia.
In his budget reply speech on Wednesday night, Senator Di Natale said the budget had been "a massive letdown for the people of Australia", and would subsidise fossil fuels while at the same time taking money away from addressing climate change.
Senator Di Natale also said the government had failed to address the nation's revenue problem.
"While revising near-term growth figures down to 2.5 per cent, the government banks on them magically rebounding up to three per cent in 2017-18," he told the Senate.
"Worse still, the government banks on investment in the non-mining sector growing to 3.5 per cent in 2016-17 and a magical 4.5 per cent by 2017-2018.
"All this on the same day that the Reserve Bank cut the interest rate in an effort to stimulate lending. I know whose projections I trust ... and it's not this government's."
Senator Di Natale said the Greens would not support tax cuts outlined in the budget, including cuts to the company tax rate and tax cuts for small business, as well as a rise in the middle-income tax threshold from $80,000 to $87,000.
"The Greens will not support these tax cuts at a time when so many Australians are doing it tough, when we haven't got the revenue to fund schools and hospitals," he said.
The government announced in the budget that the company tax rate for small and medium-sized businesses would fall to 27.5 per cent from July 1 this year.
It also announced a "glide path" to a lower corporate tax rate for all businesses with the turnover threshold for the 27.5 per cent tax rate to rise from $10 million to $25 million on July 1, 2017, to $50 million in 2018-19 and $100 million in 2019-20.
The threshold would rise until 2023-24 so that all companies would eventually be covered.
The corporate tax rate would be lowered to 25 per cent for all businesses by 2026-27.
The Greens welcomed measures that aim to crack down on multinational tax avoidance.
Senator Di Natale also called on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to "categorically" rule out any support for a $1.3 billion cut to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
