Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for the question, which she asks with a tone of triumph having secured it by her agility! We admire her agility! I have to say to the member for Bendigo very simply that she is essentially asking me for an opinion on the design of the tax system. She knows as well as we all do that there has never been any proposal to change the rate of the GST or impose an economy-wide tax that applies to all taxpayers regardless of income that was not accompanied by countervailing measures to ensure that people on lower incomes were compensated. That is exactly what her own party did with the carbon tax and, of course, it is what happened in 2001 when the GST was introduced.

The honourable member understands that, so she is really asking the question: if the GST were increased and there were no other measures, would it hurt or undercut the disposable income of people on lower incomes? Of course, it would. That is why the objective of any changes to the tax system that are effected under our government will be to ensure that the tax system enables and incentivises more jobs and more growth so that more people in Bendigo can get a job, so that more businesses in Bendigo will invest and so that more businesses in Bendigo will have the confidence to take on an additional employee. That is what we are seeking to do. We want more jobs and more growth. That is the objective. To do that, any change has to be fair.

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