Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I will just take advantage of Senator Fielding being in the chamber to explain in a few words why Liberal and National Party senators will be voting against the motion moved by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing. It seems that I am actually the only senator speaking to the motion, as everybody else has talked about the substantive tariff bills.

The motion before us is essentially that the Senate not insist on the requested amendments that we in this chamber passed yesterday. There were two series of amendments that we agreed to in the Senate yesterday. The first series related to validating the revenue collected so far to the tune of $300 million. There is absolutely no reason why the government should not agree to the validation of the revenue collected so far, just in case its substantive legislation does not have the support of the Senate. The only reason the government is not supporting the requested amendments that would validate the tax that has been collected so far is to, at three minutes to midnight—we are no longer in the eleventh hour—put maximum pressure on the Senate and more particularly on Senator Fielding. Senator Fielding has stuck by his guns and has been consistent on the issues he feels strongly about. As I mentioned earlier, the President of the AMA, Rosanna Capolingua, this morning reflected that Senator Fielding’s stance was very courageous indeed.

I am not going to go through all of the arguments again as to why the opposition thinks that this is an ineffective measure. It is a tax grab that does not have any health benefits attached to it. As such, we will not be supporting the substantive legislation. I want to point out the seriousness of the government’s actions in not accepting the requested amendments that would validate the revenue collected so far. Should this legislation be unsuccessful, I think it is very important for Senator Fielding to understand that the coalition would support legislation, which the government should introduce immediately, that validates the revenue collected so far. I am confident that with our support—and no doubt with the support of senators across the chamber—such legislation would pass. Finally, on behalf of the opposition I call on the government again to invest all of the $300 million that has been collected so far into effective and genuine measures to address the issue of alcohol abuse, as was called for by the Senate two days ago.