Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

It might be Thursday afternoon after a long sitting week, but the building is still very busy—particularly over in the ministerial wing, and particularly in your party, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott. When you go back to the office, you are going to have seven calls to return from the seven candidates for the deputy leadership of the National Party! So there is lots of activity going on over in the ministerial wing. But the problem is that the busiest people over there are the removalists. And the reason that they are so busy is that we have—only 145 days after the last reshuffle—four or maybe five or maybe six vacancies that need to be filled. It is not even 21 weeks since the last reshuffle, and the Prime Minister's ministry is a smoking ruin around him.

If the chaos and confusion was limited to personnel, if it was limited to ministers, that would be one thing. It would be bad, but that would be one thing. It would be probably quarantined to that ministerial wing. But the problem is that all of this chaos and all of this confusion is contaminating the policy process in this country as well.

As to those opposite, I have never seen a more confused and chaotic approach to policy in this country, and nowhere is that more true than when it comes to tax. We heard the pathetic defence from the Leader of the House in the censure motion before; he said, 'It's okay; there is all of this mess around the Minister for Human Services, but we have a plan.' Nothing could be further from the truth. Let me give you one example, and that is when it comes to tax.

My colleague the shadow assistant Treasurer mentioned the tax white paper. The promise made before the 2013 election was that there would be a tax white paper well within the first term of the Liberal government. We are now 2½ years in. We have more than $1 million spent on consultants, spin doctors, polling and focus groups, but we do not have a white paper. And I think that, if there is one thing above everything else that describes the chaos in tax policy amongst those opposite, it is when the Treasury secretary fronted up to estimates upstairs earlier in the week and they asked him about the tax white paper, and the secretary of the Treasury—the main adviser to the government on tax policy—confirmed that he is still 'waiting for direction' from this government on whether the tax paper will proceed at all and what its tax priorities are. So after they have been 2½ years in government, the Treasury secretary fronts up to estimates and gets asked, 'Is there going to be a tax white paper as promised? And what will the priorities be?' And he says, 'I don't know.' I say to the Treasury secretary: don't feel bad about not having a clue about this government's tax policy—he is not alone. Nobody has a clue about where this government is headed when it comes to tax policy, including those opposite, including the Treasurer of this country and his Prime Minister—not a clue.

Everybody in this country is waiting for direction. They are waiting for the direction that the Prime Minister promised when he rolled the member for Warringah. Remarkably, 2½ years into their term—five minutes to midnight in this electoral term—we still do not know whether those opposite believe in a GST of 15 per cent or not. We do not know whether it is still on the table or whether it has splattered on the floor. That is the truth about the current state of the government's lack of direction when it comes to tax policy. As I have said, after 2½ years wasted, at five minutes to midnight, they still do not know.

Plan A was this GST of 15 per cent. That was plan A. That is what the Treasurer wanted and so many of the front bench wanted over on that side—a GST of 15 per cent. The only problem, in the Treasurer's own words, was: 'Then they wet the bed.' And when they 'wet the bed'—those were the Treasurer's own words, as he described his colleagues who did not want the GST of 15 per cent. The Treasurer called the member for Forde and others 'bedwetters'. The only problem for him and for his relationship with the Prime Minister is that the Prime Minister himself showed the tendencies of being a bedwetter. As we speak, they are changing the sheets at The Lodge! So that was plan A. Plan A is gone.

So, in a humiliating backdown from the Treasurer, we get to plan B. Plan B is to revisit all the things that he said he would never touch: negative gearing, superannuation concessions—all of those things that he said he would never touch. He stands up now and he says, 'No, I never said that we were against that. We are prepared to have a look at all that.' That was humiliation No. 2. He is now prepared to go down the path of all the things that he said he would never do.

If there is one thing that defines this government and this Prime Minister, it is that they say one thing and do another. They said they would deliver stability and they have delivered chaos. They talked about leadership and delivered confusion. They said they would deliver economic direction and there is more confusion than ever. While this Prime Minister dithers, while his economic credibility drains away and while his ministry self-destructs, the burden of policy development falls to this side of the House. We have shown that we are up to that task. We have policies on the table and there will be more to come. (Time expired)

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