Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It is not good faith for the government to not indicate to this chamber and to the Australian community what it intends to do if the bill goes down. If the bill goes down in June, the Australian community what to know whether the government intends to keep this tax going for the next 12 months. Does it intend to? Does it have the capacity to? It told us before that it did not have the capacity to keep the money raised through the collection of the tax over the previous 12 months. That is what it clearly told us—that it did not have the capacity to do it.

The minister came out on the night that the tax went down and said very clearly that that meant that all the money would be going back to the distillers. I appreciate that the minister was very upset and angry that the bill did not go through. I, in fact, shared that feeling, because the Greens supported it. But we were clearly told that they could not do it. It is clearly wrong; they can. Can you tell me that it is appropriate governance of this country for the government not to have a clue what it is going to do if the bill goes down? We do not have an idea about whether they intend to collect the tax, because they have not looked beyond June? Come on! What a con of the Australian community. You are clueless about it. Pull the other one!

Bills reported without requests; report adopted.