Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It is risky. In this case, if you paid $20,000 in tax then $6,480 would have been spent on welfare—that is nearly a third—$3,200 on health, $1,860 on education, $1,180 on defence, $320 on foreign affairs and economic aid, $300 on housing and community, $740 on industry and fuel subsidies, and so on. We would be telling Australians where their money is going, and Labor does not like that. We will do that because we believe it is good policy. It is good policy that people know exactly what proportion of their taxes is going to what area of expenditure.

We are doing that because it is part of our transparency agenda, an agenda that the Labor Party, in partnership with the Independents, said would open the curtains and let the sunshine in. Let us bring it on and have an open and accountable parliament. Let us have a new paradigm where everybody holds hands together, sings Kumbaya and says, ‘Hang on guys, we’re going to let you see the full entrails of government’. But no, this Assistant Treasurer, this Treasurer and this government last time, unbelievably with the support of some of the Independents, voted against transparency. We want them to vote every time this comes up; every time, we want them to vote against transparency. The sole defence that the Assistant Treasurer had last time was that this will somehow delay the processing of tax returns. Well, we have changed the amendment this time to accommodate the wishes of the Assistant Treasurer. Last time he was a bit more animated, whereas this time he is just looking down and writing his next speech to the AWU—just drafting and redrafting. I can see him pencilling into every sentence the word ‘Combet’! How many times did he mention ‘Combet’ on Q&A? How many times did he try to tie Greg Combet to the carbon tax? It was not just Julia Gillard’s carbon tax; it was Julia Gillard and Greg Combet’s carbon tax.

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