Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The average weekly income in the electorate of McEwen is under $1,500 a week. A number of families our community are doing it a lot tougher, earning less than $800 a week. Out of that weekly income, whatever it is, money is set aside for groceries, petrol, mortgage, rent and medical expenses, plus the odd incidental that crops up, like school excursions.

These are the people and families who work hard and make the difficult decisions every day to make ends meet. These are the same people who will be hit the hardest if the GST is increased to 15 per cent. These are the same people who can least afford to lose more of their money on income tax. Increasing the GST by 50 per cent and expanding it to cover health, education and fresh food means that families will pay an additional $5,000 a year.

Families are anxious. They are looking around and wondering, where is this money coming from? It is not coming from wage increases. There will not suddenly be a $5,000 bonus or other form of compensation. Liberals just expect Australian families to accept it, to just take the hit.

But I am going to be standing up for the people of McEwen and for all our families, and I am going to be saying we will not take this unfair hit—when other options to increase revenue are taken off the table. If you want to have a discussion on tax reform, let's have it. Let's not just have a discussion about GST. Let's put everything on the table. Let's look at multinational tax evasion. Let's look at high-income superannuation tax breaks. We cannot start a conversation on a subject as important as this with one hand tied behind our backs, which is the starting point from the Abbott-Turnbull government.