Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Or there is another one called Kelly—this is what a year 9 girl is asked to role play in our schools today, and you wonder why our education is going backwards.

Kelly is 14, in year 9 and is very interested in girls. She is not sure but thinks she might be a lesbian.

Kelly quotes:

I think I'm a lesbian, but I'm not sure because I've also been attracted to a boy. I guess this gives me more options than most.

Members of the opposition laugh at this, and this may very well be funny for blokes drinking down at the pub. But this is what is being taught to year 9 girls in our schools today, and we wonder why we are going backwards. We would like to have as much funding for education as we can.

In this debate the deputy opposition leader talked about the so-called cuts or the changes that we are making to the company tax rate, so I would like to quote a passage from a book written by the shadow Treasurer: Hearts & minds. He actually has a separate chapter here under the heading 'Promoting growth through cutting the company tax', and I will quote exactly from his book. I am sure the other members would like to know what the shadow Treasurer thinks about cutting company tax. He says:

One of the more controversial reforms by Paul Keating as Treasurer was slashing the corporate tax rate from 49 per cent to 39 per cent in 1989 … I was a fresh-faced—

this is the shadow Treasurer—

Labor Party branch member at the time, and I recall the party as a whole being incredulous that a Labor government would cut the tax rate for 'fat-cat companies'. I remember a motion by the Young Labor conference calling for the corporate tax rate to be lifted to 60 per cent to pay for a program for social reform.

Opposition members interjecting—

What actually happened when Keating cut the company tax rate? We know that when he cut the company tax rate from 49 per cent down to 39 per cent, we did not lose one cent of corporate tax. We actually, within four years, were getting 60 per cent more revenue at 39 per cent than we had been at 49 per cent, and that has happened every time throughout our history. (Time expired)

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