Robert Simms (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I might take this opportunity to respond to some comments made in relation to this bill during the previous debate. I noted with great interest the comments of Senator McKenzie and the suggestion that the Australian Liberal and National parties are now, apparently, the bastions of fairness in Australian politics. 'Through the looking glass' indeed, because this comes at the same time that the Liberal and National parties have been talking about increasing the GST from 10 to 15 per cent—a huge impost on Australian families. We know that the Liberal and National parties are the parties that tend to focus on the interests of the rich and powerful, but when it comes to the most vulnerable members of our community they are missing in action. So much of this particular legislative approach seems to be based on this idea of the mythical Australian graduate who is earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year working on Wall Street. But what about the Australian graduate who is on an average income, who is not aware of these taxation arrangements and who finds themselves caught completely unawares by this change to the legislative regime?