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

The member for Kingsford Smith said that I would never have thought of something like this. Well, blow me down! I never have thought of something like this: that somebody on welfare needs more time to produce art! What are the responsibilities of someone who is on welfare? Do they have to turn up at the office at 8 am and take them away from their easel? What exactly is keeping them from producing their art? Here we have the classic rock star turned tax adviser: ‘Poor old artists—they are on welfare and they do not have enough time to paint. We had better intervene.’

Let me tell you what you do have to do if you are on welfare. Here are your obligations: you have to keep a job diary, which would ask you to record 10 job search efforts every fortnight. I do not think that would get in the way of the next Mona Lisa. I do not think that is so onerous that somebody who is on welfare needs more time to produce their art. Listen to this:

Labor will develop a ‘Social Security and the Arts’ policy that harmonises current Australia Council, Centrelink and Australian Tax Office rules and determines the most equitable way to treat earnings and royalty payments for artists currently receiving welfare.

Here we have another major problem in the tax system: if you are on welfare, you have difficulty receiving your royalty payments and they have to be harmonised between Centrelink and the ATO!

A lot of people out there who are working hard and paying their taxes think that this is not the No. 1 problem of the Australian taxation system. There are a lot of families that are raising kids that do not think harmonising royalty payments with welfare for artists is the No. 1 priority of an incoming government, and that is because there are a lot of people that think Labor rock stars are not the people who understand where the Australian taxation system has to go in the future. Let me tell you where it has to go: it has to go to looking after families, getting income tax down, making sure people can have jobs and making sure that welfare is available for those that need a helping hand. That is where Australia is and that is where the coalition is.

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