Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

but, as Senator Xenophon, very helpfully points out, there is not much time left to really go through all the detail of it. So I will just confirm again that, when Dr Ken Henry started with his committee the process of what is colloquially called the Henry tax review, we were promised root and branch reform of our tax system; we were promised a fairer, simpler tax system. But what we have been delivered is more complex and less fair; it is essentially just another grab for cash at the expense of the Australian people complemented with another $50 billion grab for cash at the expense of the states and territories without the Treasurer doing his homework and getting the unanimous support of all states and territories as is required in the intergovernmental agreement on the GST—both the agreement signed by John Howard in 1999 and the agreement signed by Kevin Rudd in 2008. We know the government knows it has to comply with a requirement for unanimous agreement because the Treasury department told Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan they had a problem which they should resolve before trying to take away $50 billion of GST from the states and territories. I will make some more comments during the committee stage of this debate. I thank the Senate.