Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to voice my opposition to the government's lazy policy to raise the GST at the same time as they are attacking families through slashing the family tax benefit. The current Treasurer is making the former member for North Sydney look like an economic genius as he engages in magic pudding economics. He has promised this GST rise three times to different groups. He has said it is going to go to the states to fund hospitals and schools. He has said it is going to pay down debt. He has promised to replace inefficient taxes—and, by the way, the Prime Minister has said that no low- and middle-income person will be worse off. That is logically impossible. You cannot do two of those things, let alone four of those things.

For the Treasurer to argue that he will cut down other taxes while providing compensation for a GST rise means only one thing: further cuts to other government programs. The cuts to the family tax benefit are the tip of the iceberg. This is economic policy at its laziest and most incoherent. It means that all they want to do is take the lazy option of attacking low- and middle-income Australians, attacking pensioners in my Hunter region and attacking families. I say the Labor Party will oppose it. We will be glad to campaign on it because we stand up for low- and middle-income Australia. We stand up for pensioners while those stand on the side of lazy economics and helping multinationals avoid paying their tax. History will prove us right.