Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

That is a very good question, because I have been asked if I am aware of any alternative policies, and the answer is: I am not. Certainly the Labor Party have no tax policy, and judging from what the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was asked on Sunday, and the way she floundered around in answering it, they have still not decided whether or not they will have a tax policy at the next election.

The member for Lilley, who is charged with being Treasurer in a future Labor government, said this to the National Press Club on 16 May:

I am not anticipating taking forward any significant change to the personal income tax system at this stage.

We have a Labor Party which has opposed every tax reform in the last 10 years, we have a Labor Party which has not even made up its mind whether or not to have a tax policy, and we have a Leader of the Opposition who has no economic credentials whatsoever. Let me remind the House that when this government introduced the $600 annual payment for the family tax benefit, the member for Lilley—the shadow Treasurer—went around Australia saying that it was not real money. This payment was paid to every eligible family in Australia and, rather than have to admit that he wanted to abolish it, he walked around Australia saying that it was not real. This is what you get from a political apparatchik: somebody who repeats a rhetorical line over and over again rather than engaging in substance. The people of Australia are interested in substance. They are interested in $600 payments that go into bank accounts and can pay bills for their children. They are interested in getting taxes lower. They are interested in tax reform, they know that the heavy economic lifting in this country has always been done by this government, and they will not trust a policy or a party that does not have any answer whatsoever to that policy.

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