Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has now been in office for 141 days. He has had 141 days to tell the Australian people about his plan to increase the GST. Will the Prime Minister increase the GST to 15 per cent—yes or no?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question and thank him for reminding me that I have been in this office for 141 days, but I must say that the question is eerily similar to one that he asked about 100 days ago. Nothing seems to have changed. One of the enduring things in the opposition's question pack is that question about the GST.

As the honourable member knows, there is—and one of his colleagues, the shadow Treasurer, has quoted from the former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, in an article about the GST—a live debate about tax reform in Australia. It has been informed by material published by this government. It has been informed by contributions from many people. And it has been informed by contributions by state premiers, two of whom, at least, have advocated an increase in the GST. I can say to the honourable member that the government is considering carefully all of these proposals. The government has not made a decision to change any element of the tax system, beyond those that have already been announced of course, such as the multinational tax avoidance changes—which honourable members will recall the Labor Party voted against. They were so troubled by large multinationals avoiding tax, they actually stood in the way of reforms which brought our multinational tax avoidance laws into the 21st century! That is how serious the Labor Party was in terms of protecting Australian businesses that are paying a full rate of tax and how little interest they had in helping the government and the Taxation Office in collecting tax from large multinationals that have, of course, by reason of their global structures, abilities to avoid tax and structure their way around tax that small businesses in Australia, for example, do not.

So I thank the honourable member for his question. The government is considering all options for reform and for change very, very carefully, and when the government has made a decision I can assure the honourable member that he will be one of the first to know.