House debates
Thursday, 26 March 2015
Questions without Notice
Goods and Services Tax
2:16 pm
Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
If I may, on indulgence, I would just like to add to your words, Madam Speaker. To Peter Greste, welcome home.
My question is to the Prime Minister. Last week the Treasurer said in relation to his secret GST report:
There will be nothing of any concern to the New South Wales government associated with this review.
So how does the Prime Minister respond to today's Australian Financial Review, which reports that this chaotic and incompetent government will rip over $200 million in GST from New South Wales? Don't the voters of New South Wales deserve the truth on Saturday from this government?
Mr Dreyfus interjecting—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Isaacs is warned!
2:18 pm
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The truth is that the only way the GST can change is if Bill Shorten wants to change it. The only way that the GST can change is if members opposite decide that they want to change it, because—
Ms Macklin interjecting—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Jagajaga is warned!
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
There is no way, under legislation, that the GST can change without the support of all the state and territory governments, and there is no way that any rational government—
Mr Champion interjecting—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Wakefield is warned! One more utterance and he will be the first to leave.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
would want to change the GST without a consensus in the parliament, and that means the support of the Australian Labor Party. But, Madam Speaker, you just do not know with members opposite, do you? You never know with members opposite. The only idea that the Leader of the Opposition has ever come up with—
Ms Plibersek interjecting—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Sydney is also warned!
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
when it comes to a budget was to steal inactive bank accounts. That is the only budget idea he has ever actually come up with—to take pensioners' and schoolkids' bank accounts, to raid the cookie jar, to grab the piggy bank—
Mr Shorten interjecting—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Leader of the Opposition will desist.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Old Light Fingers Bill over there! Old Sticky Fingers Leader of the Opposition over there!
Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The question goes to the release of a report, and the Prime Minister should be directly relevant to it.
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
There is no point of order.
Honourable members interjecting—
There will be silence on both sides.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I was asked about tax and I am responding.
Mr Shorten interjecting—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Leader of the Opposition will desist.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Leader of the Opposition's was not just a tax; it was a confiscation, an absolute confiscation! The Dollarmite accounts were gone. He was picking the pockets of pensioners. That is what he was doing.
But just on the subject of GST—
Ms Plibersek interjecting—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Sydney has been warned. If she interjects one more time, she will leave under 94(a). The choice is hers.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
there is one party which actually modelled an increase in the GST. There is one party and only one party which modelled an increase in the GST—members opposite, just before the last election. Was it the world's greatest treasurer or was it the world's worst immigration minister? Which one was it that modelled a 12½ per cent rate of the GST?
Ms Plibersek interjecting—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Sydney will leave under 94(a).
The member for Sydney then left the chamber.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
There is only one conclusion that the people of Australia can draw: you just cannot trust Labor.