Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

No, it will not. Queensland health minister Paul Lucas’s office said ‘the state would be handing back 39.3 per cent of its GST’. And the Queensland shadow health minister claims that Queensland will be forced to hand over 42 per cent of its GST in 2012-13.

What happened was that the Labor Party started running out of money. They not only spent all of the surplus but also raided the net assets of the Commonwealth. They started borrowing money because they ran out of money to pay for pink batts and school halls. They imposed their alcopops tax and their tax of motor vehicles at exactly the wrong time. Of course, that did not work because they started to run out of money again. They then introduced the mining tax into the public debate. When they ran out of all of that money and started borrowing $100 million a day they raided the GST cookie jar, which is the money that goes to the states.

This mob has spent everything that moves and you have to ask yourself, ‘Where does it go?’ It goes to the states. As Margaret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money. That is exactly what this mob are doing—they are running out of taxpayers’ money. Despite handing over significant sums of money, there is no guarantee that the states are going to end up with improved health care.

The bill is premature in discussing final arrangements because they are not finalised. The explanatory memorandum to the bill notes:

The extent of expenditure covered under the Commonwealth’s new funding commitments will be finalised with participating States as part of the implementation of the NHHN reforms. This is not covered in the amendments to the FFR Act.

So this worsens the blame game in health funding that the agreement was meant to stop. This suggests that in late 2010 the government has not finalised the figures for how much money will be provided to hospitals and health care facilities. This is quite a dangerous precedent for our parliament, especially with the upcoming election in New South Wales and the Victorian election this Saturday, where the state oppositions have expressed strong concerns over the new health arrangements. I quote the shadow Treasurer in New South Wales, Mike Baird—a very good man—who said this:

The GST is efficient and stable and grows with the economy. Do the Premier and the Treasurer of this State think this State is no longer going to grow, so they are happy to give away the GST? That could be their argument. Why did John Brumby and Colin Barnett argue so strongly? Colin Barnett continues to argue strongly that he does not want to give up the GST but is happy to contribute to the new program. We understand that health costs are rising at a rate that is unsustainable for the States to manage them, and the States want the Federal Government to contribute. We are happy to make a contribution but not from our growth tax. Why should we give away our growth tax, which is the only tax that grows with the economy? The National Health and Hospitals Network agreement contains some good points. What is the State’s GST contribution that this Labor Government has signed up to? There is nothing mentioned in that agreement, no percentage amount. That means that the amount we are going to give in GST is a blank cheque.

It is a blank cheque. I was in this place sitting in the position where old Martin is now—

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