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

We have a Prime Minister who wants to redefine 'fairness' by supporting a tax that takes more from the poor than it does from the rich. Now we have a Treasurer wanting to redefine 'friendly' by claiming the GST is a friendly tax. It is political spin to soften up the community for the Prime Minister's and the Treasurer's plan to increase the GST by 50 per cent.

There is nothing friendly about increasing a tax that hits lower income Australians the most. There is nothing friendly about adding a new tax to medical expenses, fresh food, utilities and other essentials of life. There is nothing friendly about adding $4,000 a year to the cost of living of households that are already struggling to make ends meet. There is nothing friendly about a Treasurer and a Prime Minister who are out of touch with the daily living costs of families and who want to hit them with more GST while cutting thousands of dollars from their family payments.

Former Treasurer Peter Costello used to talk about broadening the base and lowering the GST rate. This government wants to broaden the base and increase the rate. For a government that made political capital out of the phrase 'a great big tax on everything', just what do they think broadening and increasing the GST is? If the Prime Minister and the Treasurer think the GST is a friendly tax and that more of it is good, they are no friends of Australian families, many of whom are struggling to buy Christmas presents for their kids.

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