Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution in this debate on the motion that the Senate take note of the answers given by Senator Cormann and Senator Brandis. At the outset, it is important that the facts here are on the table. Revenue for 2015-16 is expected to be $405.4 billion—an increase of 5.5 per cent of the estimated revenue of 2014-15. Total expenses for 2015-16 are expected to be $434.5 billion, an increase of 3.4 per cent on estimated expenses in 2014-15. It is important that those figures be on the table.

It is also important to understand where those amounts of money come from. Forty-seven-odd per cent, or $194.3 billion, comes from PAYE taxpayers Company and resource rent taxes account for about 17.6 per cent of that revenue. Sales taxes, GST and the like represent 15.2 per cent, fuel excise is 4.4 per cent and there are a lot of other much smaller items. The picture is very clear. Through the finance minister, we are asking the Treasurer the specific question: what is in his thinking? The answer that is coming back is prevarication, with no clear vision and no clear, authoritative response to the questions we are legitimately asking. In the interview that the Treasurer did on 3AW on 19 February 2016, Mr Mitchell, the interviewer, said:

… I am looking for this vision that I heard about five months ago. Is this a five year vision or a six months vision?

The Treasurer's response was:

Our vision is of an economy that is innovative, modern for the 21st century, one where people are paying less tax over time, not more tax over time, where the economy is not run by the tax and spend higher tax club who seem to think the answer to every prayer is to raise a tax. When you hear Labor saying they have announced policies all they have done is announce higher taxes fuelling higher spending.

I am still waiting for the clarity that a Treasurer, a few months out from a budget, should have in his mind. He should know what he is going to address. Is he going to address bracket creep, if that is an economic deterrent? If 48 per cent of the revenue raised is from individuals' PAYE tax earnings and bracket creep is going to be drag on GDP, how is he going to address that? If company taxes are a drain on employment—if they are causing employers not to employ enough people—how is he going to address that? Is he looking at capital gains tax? Is he looking at negative gearing?

He has ruled out changes to the GST, but I might say this: one other very famous Liberal Prime Minister ruled out the GST, saying it was dead, gone and never to be reinstated. Four years later, he actually prosecuted the case and got it in place. The GST is the area that the Liberal government will come back to. They have ruled it out for now because the focus groups tell them it is not popular, but they have to go back to it. You cannot get any more out of the workers. You will not get any more out of the companies. The next biggest item is a 15 per cent GST. They walked away from it because they are gutless. They walk away from anything. This Prime Minister walks away from anything that threatens his position in the Lodge and anything that requires real conviction, real prosecution and real arguing of the case. Negative gearing, capital gains tax and the GST—they walked away from all those debates.

So what are they going to do in the budget? Will they even have a budget? Will they just say, 'Look, let's go the polls before the budget because we can't actually construct a rational, logical view to take to the electorate. We'll just blame the ABCC or the CFMEU for all the woes in Australia—bag it all up and say it's the Labor Party's problem and the crossbenchers' problem. They are why we can't be the government we want to be.' And they will not even address the fact that they do not have the intestinal fortitude to articulate their case in a clear and unequivocal manner in all of the forums that are available to them while they are in government. They are prevaricating. It is embarrassing that Senator Cormann—he of the 'cigar and glass of wine' fame—on the best day of his life, the 2014 budget(Time expired)