Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

In the 13 years in which we were in office we gave seven tax cuts. I say to the fool of a minister at the desk, who simply prattles away and never reads anything except what is on the front page of a newspaper: seven tax cuts were awarded by the Labor government in its 13 years of office. It gave back more than bracket creep in the time it was there, and in every one of our tax cuts we reduced the rates. We did not just adjust the thresholds. We also broadened the base of taxation in this country.

I heard the Prime Minister yesterday in question time saying it was the ACTU that killed off option C and tax reform in 1985. We did not. It was the Business Council of Australia supported by the Liberal Party, led by John Howard, that opposed the base-broadening measures. It is true that the ACTU, of which I was part at the time, did have concerns about what was referred to as option C. We thought it was unfair in that it was an across-the-board tax that targeted everything, like the GST does. We sought an exemption to what was then option C—which was a retail tax not a GST, I might point out—to exclude food, clothing and housing.

We said that if those exemptions were prepared to be made we would accept the base broadening on the expenditure side—on people’s expenditure—but only if business was prepared to accept base broadening in terms of business taxation, capital gains tax, fringe benefits and the like. Do you know who said no? It was the Business Council of Australia, supported by the Liberal Party of Australia. John Howard, the Prime Minister of this country, talks about how they supported Labor every inch of the way in genuine tax reform. They did not support tax reform in 1985. They opposed root and branch any attempt to broaden the tax base in terms of business taxation. That is why the tax summit failed. It was not because the ACTU scuttled it; it was because the Business Council of Australia, supported by the Liberal Party, scuttled it. Let’s get the facts right.

Labor understood the fundamental need to reform taxation at the same time as delivering fairness in the package. We did that consistently when we were in office. We used taxation to not only provide redistribution but also manage the economy. And manage the economy we had to do. I remind the House, just for the record—

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