Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We stood up to get the poorest Australians an increase in the aged pension—Senator Cameron, through the Acting Deputy President—while Labor backed-in middle-class welfare. We reversed John Howard's reforms, which we opposed at the time they were brought in, and got an increase to the aged pension for the least wealthy—the ones who need the safety net the most in this country. We have fought hard for superannuation concessions that change the way that superannuation is taxed in contributions in this country, and I hope also that Labor watches our policies very closely in this space and adopts them as well.

We have fought as hard as anyone against a GST increase, believing it to be a lazy tax—a regressive tax. We have fought hard to remove the diesel fuel rebate—more perverse incentives that supports wealthy mining companies. We have voted with our feet on so many issues in this place. And let's not forget probably the biggest tax reform that we have seen this country—literally in a generation and in a decade—and that was the pricing of carbon. That was the biggest tax reform this country has seen in well over a decade, and this coalition government ruthlessly and cynically campaigned on removing it for their own short-term political purposes. We lost $18 billion in revenue by taxing polluters and we were a global laughing stock when we walked away from taking action on mitigation of dangerous climate change, which we are now seeing every day around us—all for the short-term political power grab of the coalition. They have yet to replace that revenue, or a decent scheme that tackles emissions in this country.

We have pushed hard for the taxation treatment of discretionary trusts. That would raise $3.3 billion in revenue. We have pushed hard for a millionaire's tax—a super-rich tax—of an additional five per cent above current tax rates. We have worked hard for small business, to get small business concessions. I noticed that Labor did support the small business package when it came in, but what was adopted in this place was our policy going into the 2013 election—a cut for small business—for new concessions to help small businesses get on their feet.

With my last minute to go, it would be remiss of me if I did not point out that the Labor Party and the Liberal Party are both keen to spend an extra $30 billion that we do not have on warships and weapons under the defence white paper. That will remove the surplus from forward estimates, without any analysis of where else that money could be going: to schools, to hospitals, to policing or to productive infrastructure. There is so much more that we could do with $30 billion than having a national debate about a defence industry policy dressed up as a defence white paper. Thirty billion dollars is a lot of money, especially when we do not have a budget that is balancing. I do not think that debate has been had, but it is absolutely essential that we do—and the Greens will continue to lead on that. If that is what it takes, we will be the ones who will be the real opposition in this country and the ones who have ideas on reform around tax. (Time expired)