Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am honoured this afternoon to close this debate that talks about tax. I always find it quite interesting, even peculiar, when opposition senators on this side come to the Senate chamber to talk about tax policy and options for reform. It is a good thing and I applaud the Labor Party for suddenly developing a strong interest in the matters of tax policy. It is often said, 'Better late than never,' and I think that is amply true in this particular instance. It is particularly curious that, when Labor was in power for six years, they did not do much talking on tax and they certainly did not do much talking or acting in terms of tax propositions that would foster economic growth and foster job opportunities for the Australian economy. In fact, over Labor's six years, Labor's basic approach on tax was to talk about almost anything else and simply hope that no-one would notice that they were putting taxes up. Nowhere more was that demonstrated than through the Henry tax review—in my view, a considered, thoughtful and detailed piece of work that ended up costing the Australian taxpayer $20 million. So let's ask ourselves: what was it that Labor did with that $20 million exercise known as the Henry tax review? What did the last Labor government do with the findings of that particular tax review report? Senator Williams might recall that Labor sat on the Henry tax review paper for as long as it possibly could and then comfortably ignored almost 95 per cent of the recommendations in that Henry tax review.