House debates
Thursday, 17 March 2016
Questions without Notice
Taxation
2:34 pm
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source
I thank the member for his question on tax. I thank him for the question on tax because it gives me the opportunity to talk about tax policies that those opposite have described. If I go to the statement by the member for McMahon, he said that their policies on negative gearing and capital gains tax are 'sensible, moderate and well-thought-out policy'. It made me think: when was the last time that the shadow Treasurer, the member for McMahon, described policies in those terms? If you go back to a famous policy of his called Fuelwatch, he described it as a 'sensible thought-out plan'. He said:
We put our plans out there. We put our plans for FuelWatch which, all the objective evidence indicates, puts downward pressure on fuel prices by about 2 cents a litre at a cost of $20 million.
He said:
FuelWatch is a very good plan. We've put out our plan ...
And:
FuelWatch brings down petrol prices ...
This is the bit I like. He said this about Fuelwatch:
You've got to have a bit of credibility about this, you've got to weigh up the value of these plans.
But he did not stop there. He did not stop at Fuelwatch. He went through any number of other plans. Do we remember GroceryWatch?
Dr Chalmers interjecting—
Tibor Majlath
Posted on 20 Mar 2016 1:00 pm
Question time. What a joke. No wonder the Minister avoided answering the question. If you look at the record of both governments listed in MYEFO you can see why.
Labor 1983-1996 : Tax/GDP Average Tax/GDP = 24% ; Average Spending/GDP = 25.7%
Howard 1996-2007 : Tax/GDP Average Tax/GDP = 25.15% ; Average Spending/GDP = 24.15%
Rudd/Gillard 2007-2013 : Tax/GDP Average Tax/GDP = 22.85% ; Average Spending/GDP = 24.63%
Abbott/Turnbull
2013-14 Tax/GDP = 22.8% ; Spending/GDP = 25.7%
2014-15(e) Tax/GDP = 23.5% ; Spending/GDP = 25.9%
2015-16(e) Tax/GDP = 24% ; Spending/GDP = 25.9%
2016-17(e) Tax/GDP = 24.2% ; Spending/GDP = 25.5%
2017-18(p) Tax/GDP = 24.7% ; Spending/GDP = 25.3%
2018-19(p) Tax/GDP = 25.2% ; Spending/GDP = 25.3%
(e) estimate; (p) projection {from Table 1: Australian Government general government sector receipts, payments, net Future Fund earnings and underlying cash balance.}
The Coalition has/had the highest tax/GDP under both the Howard and the Abbott/Turnbull governments. But Labor is not entirely to blame for increasing spending.
Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson produced a chart in his post budget speech on 20 may 2014 showing that "every budget over the 12 years from June 1998 loosened fiscal policy, that is, increased spending and decreased tax revenue. Of those, 10 budgets were delivered by the Coalition and included eight years of income tax cuts." SOURCE: http://www.treasury.gov.au/PublicationsAndMedia/Speeches/201...
The Turnbull government is still spending big and apparently revenue is not the problem. Both parties are to blame for the spending problem. What is surprising is that Coalition is the higher taxing party not Labor based on these figures. It is so simple when a politician explains the issue.