Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer recently appointed leading businessmen Dick Warburton and Peter Hendy to investigate how Australia’s tax system compares to other developed countries. We have been told that the two men have just one month to provide the report to the Treasurer ahead of the 9 May budget—they have been asked to report on 3 April. The Treasurer told ABC television:

I think it’s important that we internationally benchmark the Australian taxation system. ...  We need to get the full-rounded picture on the plate.

The study will produce a public document that compares Australian taxes to those in other countries, identifying where Australia leads comparable countries and where it lags. We do not need an inquiry set up by the Treasurer to tell us that we have problems with our tax system; we do not need an inquiry set up by the Treasurer to tell us that this is the highest taxing government in Australia’s history—we already know those facts. The Treasurer, who has been in place for 10 years—certainly more years than he would prefer as Treasurer—should know by now that it is his obligation and the department’s obligation to examine those particular matters.

To set up an inquiry with two mates of the Liberal Party is a ridiculous waste of public money. It will not do any more than what we know, which is that the tax system is burdened with complexity. In fact, if you were to measure the depth of the tax act, it has doubled in height since the election of this government. There are more complexities as a result and therefore more confusion for businesses and individual taxpayers in this country. We ask the Treasurer to stop messing around with the system, to stop deferring the decision to properly fix those problems and to stop giving jobs to his mates.

We know that Mr Peter Hendy was the former chief of staff of the then Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations back during the waterfront dispute. We are aware of Peter Hendy’s behaviour and conduct in that dispute, a dispute that was filled with balaclavas and iron bars and with threats against ordinary workers. We are aware of Peter Hendy’s activities there.

We are also aware that Peter Hendy followed the minister to the Department of Defence. We are aware that Peter Hendy, as an adviser to former Minister Reith during the kids overboard affair, was complicit in a cover-up—in fact, in a lie—to suggest that the kids were thrown overboard. We know Minister Reith then clearly knew that the kids were not thrown overboard but was happy to lie to the Australian public. You cannot tell me that Peter Hendy was not aware of that.

To pretend that this man Peter Hendy is an impartial, independent observer and an expert with impeccable qualifications of course is not true. This is jobs for the boys. This is a Liberal Party stooge, a person who will come to the rescue every time Peter Costello is in trouble. When there were allegations made in this place that the Treasurer misled the parliament about whether the department had studied whether there were needs to reduce the minimum wage, it was Peter Hendy who was the first man out of the box to say, ‘That could not be the case. The Treasurer would not do that.’ This man Mr Hendy has been an apologist for this government since 1996. We all know why: he was on the payroll for most of that time and he was involved in some of the most nefarious behaviour and activities this government has undertaken during its 10 years in office.

Can I ask the Treasurer not to set up an inquiry to tell us what we already know, which is that this government is the highest taxing government in Australia’s history and not to defer the decisions to properly fix those problems. Instead I ask the Treasurer to come into this place and announce how he will fix those problems—not just for the top end of town but how he will ensure there will be proper economic relief for middle income earners in this country, for those ordinary working families doing it tough because of the extra burdens that this government has placed upon them. We do not need a two-person committee; we need a Treasurer with guts, a Treasurer who actually wants to do his job. Instead of dreaming about someone else’s job he should be attending to the job that he was elected to do. That is, he should look after the Australian people and relieve them of the tax burden that is clearly upon them. (Time expired)