Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given to all coalition senators' questions today.

I want to start with the last question that was asked by Senator Paterson. What was very telling in the response from Minister Gallagher was her unwillingness to give a very simple response to a question that only required either a yes or a no answer. What we're seeing with this government here, with the charade of the productivity so-called round table last week, is that they're laying the foundation for some changes when it comes to tax.

There's no doubt that this government is laying the foundation to impose higher taxes on Australians because they have no other option but to raise taxes for hardworking Australians—because of their spending. The spending that is going on with this government is out of control, and it is impacting upon the ability of this country to pay for it and afford it. The only way you can do that is if you increase taxes.

It's just like they did in the last term with their so-called Jobs and Skills Summit, where they used that as a method to bring in legislation that wasn't talked about before the previous election. When it comes to industrial relations, they use the Jobs and Skills Summit to be the vehicle to justify significant changes in the industrial relations landscape. I've got no doubt that that is the tactic that they're employing here with their so-called productivity round table, which they held last week as a way of saying some ideas came out of that forum that they could then take on and use to justify changes to the taxation system.

Now, this is not something Australians voted for at the last election. In fact, there were commitments made, and we heard it through the questions that were asked and the statements that were made. The Prime Minister said that there won't be any changes, but we know that the Treasurer is not so convinced. As Senator Paterson pointed to, there was an interview that took place on 24 August where the Treasurer said, 'It remains to be seen,' as to whether or not there will be any increased taxes. What we've got is a real difference between what the Prime Minister is saying and what the Treasurer is saying. The Treasurer knows that the only way that they can deal with their increase in spending, their out-of-control spending, is to increase the taxes that Australians are paying. That is, of course, going to have a significant impact on productivity, the very thing that that whole forum was meant to be about last week—increasing productivity. It's the P-word that this government will not deal with. They will not deal adequately with the significant productivity changes.

I mentioned industrial relations. We're seeing such low levels of productivity in this country because of all the complications that this government has imposed on businesses operating. Productivity is at an all-time low. I've just spent the last week up in the Pilbara. The resources sector is known as one of the most productive sectors of our industry, of our economy, and we're seeing the unions get more involved in workplaces—workplaces that pay the highest possible wages, well above market rates. We're seeing more and more involvement of unions there, increasing the complexity of running a worksite, increasing the complexity of delivering for customers and increasing the complexity of what it takes to deliver a profit, return the profit to shareholders and, indeed, make this country productive.

That's what we're seeing under this government because this government is out of control when it comes to managing the economy. We're going to see the impact of this in time. I have no doubt that they've laid the foundation. They're going through it, and it will only be a matter of time before we see some tax proposed, and they'll say, 'This is what was discussed,' or, 'This was the foundation that was laid at the productivity roundtable last week.' Well, Australians will see through this, and they will hold you to account.