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

The Greens as a party believe that government has a strong role to play in the lives of Australian people. We believe that governments and the provision of services are absolutely essential to our quality of life, for caring for people, for looking after the environment. We've always said that. We also believe governments have a role, a collective responsibility, to invest in the Australian people and in the economy through, for example, infrastructure programs. You can't have $144 billion of revenue without an opportunity cost, Senator Cormann—to you, Chair.

Sadly, we haven't had a debate about the opportunity costs of $144 billion. But I do want to pose this question to the Australian people: if you could invest $144 billion, what would you do with it? What this government's doing today and what the Labor Party are doing with their package is simple. They are saying: 'How much is your vote worth at the next election? If you're earning $37,000, $40,000 or $45,000—up to $60,000—we'll give you $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, maybe $10 a week. That's what your vote is worth to us. This is a bribe.' This is an election trick. It is a bribe for the Australian people.

But if you were to say to the Australian people, 'Would you rather your $5 a week was invested back in a world-class education system, a proper healthcare system, a fully funded NDIS, an NBN, a threatened species plan or reducing climate change?' I bet you, London to a brick, that Australians would say: 'That's your job. That's what I elect you for. You invest that money for the future of our society and our kids.' That's what the Australian people would want. That's not the way this question has been posed, but that is fundamentally what we're debating here today.

We've had a very consistent position that we won't be supporting any of these tax cuts. Now is not the time to be cutting revenue—taking revenue and giving it back in tax cuts. What else have we seen cut in recent times? Can any senator in this chamber put their hand on their heart and say that we have enough revenue now to cover our services and fund our needs in society? No. Everywhere we look, this government is cutting funds, and it has been cutting funds since it was first elected. Think back to the zombie budget cuts in 2013-14. Think of the efficiency dividends. I'll list a few things for you, Senator Cormann. Hundreds of millions of dollars were cut from ARENA and $334 million was cut from the ABC, with more to come—there's absolutely no doubt about that. There've been cuts to legal aid funding, the Medicare rebate freeze, billions cut from family tax benefit supplements, cuts to ASIC, cuts to CSIRO, cuts to the environment department, R&D offsets cut, local government grants cut, ATSI Affairs cut—I could go on. We don't have enough revenue at the moment, so why are we taking $144 billion of tax revenue and giving it back in tax cuts, a few dollars a week, to the Australian public, who I'm sure have put us in this place to make sure that tax revenue is properly invested?

So, while we don't support tax cuts at this point in time, we do want to make sure that what we do in this committee stage at least improves the bill in any way, shape or form so that, when it gets to the final vote, we can at least try to get a better outcome for the Australian people. This tax package is not a good outcome. It is a total con. We'll have a lot more to say about this during the continuing committee stage.