Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always a pleasure to stand in this place and talk about tax reform, because it is only members on this side of the House who are actually having a genuine debate about tax reform. The only idea of tax reform that those opposite have is to increase taxes. I would just like to reflect briefly on some of the comments made by those opposite in their contributions. I will start with the member for Watson, seeing as it was his MPI to begin with.

The member for Watson talked about the increase of the tax-free threshold to $18,000 and taking a million people out of the tax system. In reality, that is not quite correct. These people were moved from paying income tax to paying the carbon tax. That is why the tax-free threshold was increased to $18,000: not out of the goodness of the hearts of those opposite, but as compensation for paying a different type of tax. So they were still in the tax system. In addition—and what was far worse—those that were below the previous threshold of $6,000 went from paying no income tax to now also paying income tax. They slugged everybody with the carbon tax; they did not miss anybody. It was this government, members on this side of the House, who truly removed those one million people from the tax system by removing the carbon tax, to the benefit of all Australians.

But now we see, today, another bright idea from those opposite raised up the flagpole: the notion of increasing the cost of a packet of cigarettes from roughly $30 today to something like $40—an increase of some 33 per cent. It is interesting—and this applies to the member for Lingiari's contribution to this debate as well—to reflect on the increase in the cost of living. I agree with the member for Makin that the cost of living is an issue for many Australians, but the member for Lingiari might be interested to know that, according to the Department of Health and their latest tobacco key facts and figures, updated as of August this year, those living in remote communities, specifically Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, are 2½ times more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to smoke on a daily basis. So what is increasing the cost of a packet of cigarettes to $40 going to do for the people in those communities who are already struggling to make ends meet?

The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who smoke is around 32 per cent of the population. I think it is going to have a tremendous impact on their cost of living. It is interesting that the member for Lingiari purports to represent those communities, and yet I have not heard him say anything publicly against this proposed tax increase on cigarettes that would directly affect his community. People in remote communities are twice as likely to smoke daily as those in the major cities, and so, again, there is going to be a direct impact on those in his communities. In addition, people who live in the lowest socioeconomic areas—those who Labor purports to represent—are actually three times more likely to smoke daily than people in the highest socioeconomic areas.

Again we see, in the entire argument of those opposite, that they are not assisting the very people they purport to assist; they are actually going to hurt them more. In addition to that, they plan to sneak in a carbon tax again if they come into government.

It is only the coalition government, this side of the House, that is prepared to engage in a genuine debate about the important structural reforms that we need in our tax system to have an economy that can grow, provide jobs and be productive for the future of this country. We need economic growth to build this country for the future. That increases the tax revenue that the government receives. Therefore, we can continue to provide the services and facilities the Australian people expect our governments to provide. It is this side of the House that will provide that for this country, not those opposite.

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