Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Turnbull government's plan to increase the GST shows just how out of touch they are with Australians, particularly those people living in regional and rural areas. I have made it very clear to my constituents in Richmond on the New South Wales North Coast that I am fighting hard against the Prime Minister's and the National Party's unfair plan to increase the GST to 15 per cent.

The people of regional Australia will be hit hardest by this plan. As I have said often, National Party choices hurt—and their choices really hurt the people of regional and rural Australians. In my area the National Party have already made the choice to cut unfairly the age pension, to cut unfairly family payments, to cut cruelly local jobs and to slash funding for health services. And now what do they want to do? Now they want to increase the GST to 15 per cent.

Since it became clear that this was on the government's agenda—and, indeed on the National Party's agenda as well—I have been inundated with concerns by locals, especially from pensioners and families. Make no mistake about it, Mr Deputy Speaker: a 15 per cent GST will severely hurt the people of the North Coast of New South Wales. There is nothing fair at all about increasing the GST—nothing fair at all.

As we have made it very clear on this side, Labor will not support this increase to the GST. Increasing the tax would inflict the heaviest punishment on those least able to afford it—that is a fact. For the people on the North Coast of New South Wales and right throughout the country it will be very clear at the next election that it is only Labor that opposes raising the GST to 15 per cent, and that it is the National Party and the Liberal Party that actually want to increase the GST to 15 per cent. That will be a very clear choice.

The Prime Minister has confirmed on many occasions that an increase to the GST is definitely on the table. The GST is a regressive and unfair tax that hits everybody, but it hits low- and middle-income families and pensioners the hardest. It hurts those people on fixed incomes the most.

The fact is that the Prime Minister, the Liberals and the Nationals are just so out of touch. They just do not understand that people are already struggling to make ends meet—just to make it through each week and just to get by. I do not think that any of those on other side understand that. Independent analysis shows that increasing the GST will hurt so many families. As I said, it will particularly hurt low- and middle-income families. The independent modelling shows that an increase in the rate of the GST to 15 per cent would require people in the lowest 20 per cent income bracket to pay seven per cent more, whilst people in the highest 20 per cent income bracket would pay just three per cent more of their income. That is just not fair.

Lifting the GST to 15 per cent will slug average households almost $8,800 a year. The average household already pays about $5,800 a year in GST. So, obviously, raising it to 15 per cent would increase that figure by $3,000—a very large amount for so many families. The fact is that the Prime Minister, the Liberals and the Nationals would rather tax hardworking Australians and pensioners than tackle multinational tax avoidance. That is the reality for them.

Increasing the GST would also have a major impact across a whole range of different services. Let's run through some of those basic services which will be impacted. It means that there will be increases in things like health care, dental care, rent, electricity bills, university fees, aged care and child care—the list goes on and on. They will all have increases. Indeed, of particular concern is the increase of 15 per cent tax every time you visit the doctor. Imagine what that would mean, particularly to pensioners? Or a new 15 per cent tax every time you do the shopping—every time you go there? Imagine if it is put on fresh food and what that will mean to families?

The imposition of a GST on visits to the doctor will particularly hit hard in regional areas, and this has been acknowledged by so many health professionals as well. The AMA president, Professor Owler, said:

A GST on health would penalise the poorest and the sickest in the community when they are ill.

That is the reality of increasing the GST.

Other areas of major concern are the potential increases in costs for child care and aged care. We saw in question time this week the government refusing to rule out extending the GST to those areas, and today refusing to rule it out in TAFE fees.

As I have said, we know that the GST is a regressive tax and that it will really hurt those people from lower- and middle-income households. For this reason we on this side of the House will continue to fight very hard against their unfair plan to increase the GST. It really hits families and pensioners hard. The reality is that raising a family is expensive and that the cost of living keeps going up. That is the reality, and they just do not seem to understand it. It is clear they do not understand it, as they are pursuing this plan to increase in the GST to 15 per cent. But people, particularly in regional areas like mine, really understand it very clearly. What they know is that National Party choices hurt, and that this particular choice of increasing the GST to 15 per cent—the National Party's choice—will really hurt the people of regional Australia.

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