Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The admirably industrious member for Lyne, in a radio interview on 2 November, ruled out applying the GST to rent or nursing home payments. Will the Prime Minister do the same?

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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, and, given that I have answered this question—not as briefly as the member for Adelaide said I warranted to do, although you can never entirely rely on a politician when he says, 'I'll be brief'—I will invite the Treasurer to respond to this.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prime Minister, I thank you for the opportunity to respond to the question. I commend the member for Lyne for being part of this discussion that we are having about a better tax system. He has put forward an option, and he has had that costed. We are considering all options and the government have put forward no preferred option or proposal. What would assist the government is if all the options that are already out there but have not been fully released were able to be considered by the government. Of course, I am referring to when the member for McMahon, the shadow Treasurer, was the Treasurer and he commissioned some Treasury advice on a number of scenarios. One of those scenarios—he will remember it as scenario 3—was to increase the GST rate to 12½ per cent and also to broaden the base. A large part of it is blacked out. It would help the government, given we want to consider all the options, if he could tell us what scenario one is and what scenario two is and what the full details of scenario three are and where he was proposing to extend the base. Heaven forbid what scenario four, scenario five and scenario six are. How many scenarios were there?

How many scenarios were there? Captain Keynesian over there, I am sure, would have many of these options and it would greatly assist us, as we consider all of the options, as you would be required to do when you are trying to come up with the best tax system, if the shadow Treasurer would give permission for all the Treasury modelling that was done by the previous government on increasing the GST to be released.