Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister. I would now like to move to a broader issue of tax reform. The minister, in his time as Assistant Treasurer, in introducing tax law amendment bills often talked about the integrity of the tax system and he had the support of the opposition on the vast majority of the measures within those bills.

I would like to take the minister to an important anniversary some 12 days from now—that is, 30 June—which is the 10th anniversary of the GST legislation. I ask the minister to reflect on that, given that he has been an Assistant Treasurer responsible for GST administration. I ask him whether he has any plans at all with respect to that 10th anniversary. It is not only the 10th anniversary of the GST going through the parliament but also the 10th anniversary of ‘fundamental injustice day’—that is, the day the now Prime Minister declared the passing of the GST to be ‘fundamental injustice day’ in Australia, a day that generations would look back on. I ask the minister whether he still regards the passing of the GST to be a fundamental injustice and whether there is anything planned for that anniversary.

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