Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I guess you wouldn't appreciate them, being an academic and not having actually worked in the real world where you have to get out there and dig ditches and earn a buck. You might learn something from someone who has had to do that—pay taxes and employ people.

Opposition members interjecting—

Isn't it great how they are reacting? One thing they have not forgotten—the assistant minister and the member for Gorton will remember—is the incredible time under Keating and Hawke and how great Labor's economic credibility was in those times. They left us with a $96 billion debt. When people like the member for Fraser come in here and start talking about tax reform, those on that side of the chamber should remember that they have no credibility on economic or tax reform or anything. I must admit that during the 25 years I spent in business, every time Labor came into power—bang!—businesses knew they were going to get smashed by tax reform. It was called 'tax reform' but it was just hitting the tax and spend ideology, which is still there. We see it today.

I want to touch on the tobacco tax, which has been talked about. As the chair of the health committee, one of the things that we have found with that tax is that it hurts the people of low SES, it hurts their children and it hurts the way they spend their money. They will continue to spend money on tobacco. The only people who will suffer from that are the children, who do not get proper food because people in those lower SES areas still continue to purchase tobacco.

All the contributions, one after the other, from the members of the opposition about tax reform got me thinking about the last time Labor tried to reform the tax system. It was not that long ago. You would think, Mr Deputy Speaker, that before submitting a public importance matter about tax policy the member for Fraser would have considered the recent record of his own party. I will take you back to 2008, when the Rudd government established Australia's Future Tax System Review. This became known as the Henry tax review on account of the then Secretary to the Treasury. It was billed as a root and branch review of the nation's tax system. If you can remember, it was actually a recommendation of the Australia 2020 tax summit—and how good was that? Who remembers the 2020 tax summit? It would be interesting to review the outcome of that 2020 tax summit and see what has actually been achieved. I suspect the coalition called it right at the time on that one.

Labor undertook the Henry review to examine Australia's tax and transfer system, including state taxes, and make recommendations to position Australia to deal with the demographic, social, economic and environmental challenges of the 21st century. Sound familiar? It was two years from the time it was announced by Treasurer Swan on 13 May 2008 to the government releasing the final report on 2 May 2010. This was a very comprehensive report. There were 180 specific recommendations in this report compiled by Mr Henry. So you would say that there were quite a few opportunities there for the Labor Party to implement some tax policy reforms. Almost the entire report was ignored, except for one thing—the minerals resource rent tax, which was just a cash grab from Western Australia, attacking the Western Australian mining industry. I can tell you that, when the next election comes around, the Western Australian people will not forget that tax grab and will not give any favours to the Labor Party for their economic reforms.

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