Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

is now for the Leader of the Opposition. Apparently, unlike Jay Weatherill, he does not think it is a good idea to increase the GST. Well, a lot of people disagree with doing that—and that is perfectly reasonable. But there is a variety of views. And all of us, I believe, understand the fact that, in the absence of appropriate compensation, a rise in the GST would have a regressive nature. We all understand that and we have talked about that. The design of compensation, the design of any tax cuts—all of those things would be critically important. But what the honourable member should be doing is putting forward his own proposals if he does not like that.

Opposition members interjecting—

The honourable members' proposals raise a tiny amount of money relative to the budgetary demands. The honourable members claim that they raise $70 billion. They do not raise $70 billion. The honourable members claim they are going to get $70 billion out of the beleaguered smokers of Australia. Well, I do not think that is going to happen. The reality is that the Labor Party left us with a massive budgetary black hole—every Australian understands that. They refused to pass savings measures in the Senate, so they are doing nothing to assist in addressing that. They have proposed a couple of changes—increasing tobacco excise, which raises a relatively modest amount of money, and some changes to taxation of multinationals, which is highly controversial. Again, the amount of money would be very modest in the context of the challenges we face. Labor left a massive black hole, and what it proposes is just fiddling around the edges.

Ms Macklin interjecting—

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