Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, we gave leave to the Leader of the Government to provide the Senate with an update on the negotiations in relation to the enterprise tax bill. What we heard from Senator Cormann was a fairly lengthy attempt to argue the merits of his bill, which, obviously, he has not been able to convince the Senate of to date. We heard Senator Cormann refer to 'his belief'—as, indeed, he has done on several occasions in question time during the course of this week. Each time he talks about his belief, it is countered by question after question after question of the evidence that's there before us. Today, the most recent evidence was this secret BCA survey. But, of course, the indisputable evidence, as both Senator Farrell and Senator Keneally mentioned today, is that fairness simply doesn't trickle down. You don't need to hear this in the language of fairness; you can hear this in the language of economic commentators as well. If there is a fundamental difference between the government and Labor here in the parliament, perhaps this is the point: the government's got its priorities wrong and has been unable to convince the Senate otherwise. The government's priority is the top end of town, and this enterprise tax bill is the best example of that point. There is no economic case—we have demonstrated that in the last two weeks here in the Senate—and the Labor Party will continue to argue this point.

We heard Senator Cormann in question time today attempting to say, 'Well, you know, you're on board for the first three years of the program.' That is a complete misrepresentation of the Labor Party's view on the enterprise tax bill. We have been, and will continue to be, clear that we do not accept more tax breaks for the top end of town. In case and case again, our focus has been on jobs, the cost of living, education, health and closing down the capacity of some in our society to access tax breaks that this government seems so keen to continue to make available and, indeed, further.

I indicated, in seeking an opportunity to respond to the minister's statement, that I wanted to reflect on some procedural matters, so I will focus on those. Apart from the point I just made, the minister told us that he was going to give us an update on negotiations. After a fairly lengthy contribution about his beliefs, we finally got there. It is: senators, we cannot anticipate that this bill will be before us tomorrow. Fortunately we will have the opportunity to return home for Christmas—sorry, for Easter.