John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I will check what I said, but I will tell you what I do remember. I do remember an advertisement that appeared in the Australian on, would you believe, Monday, 26 September 1985. I have a long memory about these things. It appeared under the heading: ‘To end an unfair and antiquated tax system, we had to take some tough decisions’. This was a newspaper advertisement selling the virtues of the soon to be doomed option C, where the Keating government proposed the introduction of a 12½ per cent consumption tax. I also remember that the people who sank tax reform in 1985 were the leaders of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. It was the objection of the ACTU—the member for Hotham remembers this, and the member for Batman has the decency to grin because he knows what I am saying.

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