Rod Kemp (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Hansard source

I have a couple of comments to make on the substance of the issue. Of course, my remarks on the indexation matters I made previously also apply in this case. It is true that Senator Murray and his party at times play a very constructive role in tax reform. I well remember the debates on the GST, which Senator Murray and I locked horns over for a long period of time. It was not that Senator Murray agreed with everything the government did but, nonetheless, it would be churlish of me not to recognise that the Democrats did work constructively with the government on the introduction of the goods and services tax.

I remember—and Senator Murray will remember this—the amount of abuse that was directed at Senator Murray and his party by the Labor Party and the Greens in an attempt to intimidate the Democrats into changing their general in principle support for a goods and services tax. How times have changed, Senator Murray. The Labor Party, of course, now fully accept the tax changes we made in relation to the goods and services tax. This may not be the greatest backflip in Australian history, but it would be fairly close to it, I would have thought, given the amount of debate and time the Labor Party has spent on this issue. With Senator Milne in the chamber, I do not suggest to Senator Milne that she bears any responsibility for the attitude of the Greens on this issue, but my memory is that the Greens have not been particularly constructive in relation to major issues of tax reform.

The point I am making is that in areas of tax reform the Democrats are credible in the sense that they have always wanted to engage in tax reform and they have wanted to be players. The Labor Party were not players in the area of tax reform. In fact, they were dragged kicking and screaming to the area of tax reform and, of course, as history now shows, the Labor Party are now a strong supporter of the goods and services tax—