After the successful election result of 18 May 2019, the Morrison government acted swiftly to give effect to its priority legislative agendas. The parliament was recalled expeditiously on 2 July, primarily to pass the Coalition’s Budget‐announced tax package with effect from 30 June. The government claimed it had the mandate to introduce the entire $158 billion package and insisted on passing it in its entirety. A series of sequential income tax cuts was intended to provide immediate relief to households with a tax offset, then flattening the tax structure for middle income earners, and then a much larger cut with one flat rate of 30 per cent applying to incomes between $45,000 and $200,000 effective from 2024‐25 (down from 37 per cent and covering 94 per cent of all taxpayers). Still in shell‐shock at their defeat, Labor initially raised issues with the flatter third phase costing $95 billion over five years, but then flailed about claiming the tax cuts were too generous and unaffordable, then suddenly insufficient, and then too delayed. Nevertheless, not wanting to be seen as opposing tax cuts, Labor agreed to back the government over the legislation in the lower house and much of it in the Senate by choosing not to oppose the measures, but planned to amend the third stage in the Senate (and refused to rule out repealing the third stage if it won government). In the Senate, crossbench senators Stirling Griff and Rex Patrick from Centre Alliance, as well as Cory Bernardi and Jacqui Lambie, were induced to support the full package, in part swayed by some sweetener concessions to their states (such as forgiving Tasmania’s $157 million debt for social housing, the deal guaranteeing reliability and lower prices for gas and electricity). Only the Greens consistently opposed the tax changes, while the two One Nation senators abstained.