Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The Liberals under Mr Howard and Mr Abbott sold $59.8 billion of public assets and paid back $57 billion of Labor debt, leaving us with $10 billion of outstanding bonds and unfunded public service super. How much revenue would have been raised to today had we not sold those public assets? In the last six months, the Turnbull Liberal government has failed to present a tax plan to the Australian people, and that failure has added to the chaos and confusion that the Abbott Liberal government first created for this parliament.

The Liberals like to spread the propaganda that it is the other crossbenchers and I who have made this Senate chaotic and unworkable. In the Senate I have voted for and passed almost 75 per cent of the Liberals' legislation. That is worth $32 billion. With my votes I have protected Australia's poor from $30 billion of Liberals' cuts. The Liberals sacked a Prime Minister and have caused chaos. Everyone knows that the Liberals will increase the GST and tax Australia's poor if they are re-elected as the government.

I have identified an extra $94 billion over 10 years for our budget if only the government had the courage to tax the super-rich. Australia could have a super-rich death tax, a capital gains tax and a financial transactions tax. Just those three new taxes would raise an extra $94 billion over the next decade by targeting the super-rich.

The Liberals try to make us pay more to visit our doctors with their GP co-payments to repair our budget. In the Senate I helped stop that attack on Medicare, and I will do it again and again because the Liberals now want to make Australian women pay more for cancer checks by forcing $650 million of cuts to bulk-billing.