Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

Absolutely. Now, on the weekend I was speaking to a mother in my electorate. She is a working mother who works in the aged care sector. Her husband is a tradie and a subcontractor and they have three adult sons, all in the workforce. She raised with me two critical issues that she has been confronted with in recent times. The first was how difficult it is for her sons to get a job given what has happened in South Australia, thanks to the coalition government firstly destroying the South Australian economy by driving Holden out of South Australia and secondly procrastinating over the awarding of the submarine contracts. The second thing she talked to me about was the rising cost of living. She referred to the essential rising cost of living that she and her family are continuously confronted with. This is a matter that has been raised with me by people in my electorate on a regular basis, particularly those people who are genuinely at the lower-income end of society. It is not surprising that they are raising it with me, because they will be the worst affected if there is a GST increase, and they know that. And it is not surprising that they are affected by the rising cost of living, because if you look at recent figures the general cost of living has gone up by 29 per cent. For health and education it has gone up by above 60 per cent, and the cost of fruit and vegetables has gone up by more than 40 per cent.

Those are very simple figures that paint a picture of what people are being confronted with on a regular basis. You then have the other half of that equation, which is that those people who have work in South Australia at the moment are likely, like this woman's husband the tradie, to be working at lower rates. Overtime is non-existent for anyone who does have a job, or there is very little of it. Wage increases are minimal, and if you have kids at home who cannot get a job then that adds to your living costs at home. When you combine that with an increase in the GST you can understand why people are genuinely concerned about a GST increase on everything they have to buy and pay for in their daily lives.

The Prime Minister comes into this place and dances around the issue. He will not rule the GST in or out but simply keeps talking about things such as fairness. He does not define 'fairness', but he talks about compensating people that might be affected by the tax system, if it is to be changed. The Prime Minister has had plenty of opportunity to come into the House and clearly state whether he supports an increase in the GST or whether he does not, whether he supports increasing the base or whether he does not, or what he intends to do with it. It is no good talking about fairness by saying, 'We are going to compensate people for any possible GST rise.' The truth of the matter is that, if GST is added, it is done to increase government revenue. There is no purpose in raising the GST if it does not raise the total revenue for the government, because this is a government that does have a revenue problem. Therefore, no amount of compensation is going to fully offset or compensate for the increased tax that people will have to pay. Even if it is the people or businesses at the top end of society and the like, the reality is that they have no choice, ultimately, but to pass that increased tax on to the lower income people. Even worse, we know that part of the reason why the government wants to increase the GST is so that it can provide a lower rate of tax for companies in and around Australia.

We know full well that an increase in the GST not only will hit the most vulnerable people in our society but also will have direct negative effects on the health of the nation. The AMA president, the Rural Doctors Association president, the Public Health Association of Australia president, the Heart Foundation CEO—we have seen all of these people come out and be very critical about raising the GST, particularly because of the impacts it will have on health across the nation.

If time permits me to do so, I want to make one last point: it also adds to the complexity of people who run their small businesses, like the tradie who I referred to earlier on. They will, obviously, be hit with additional paperwork to deal with—taking time that they do not have—and face additional costs in order to manage their books. There is nothing fair about increasing or broadening the GST. The Prime Minister should stop dancing around the issue, as he has done today, and let the Australian people know exactly where he stands on this issue once and for all.

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