Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in opposition to the government's plan to increase the GST. I have made it very clear to my constituents in Richmond that I am fighting hard against the Prime Minister's and the National Party's unfair plan to increase the GST to 15 per cent. As I have often said, National Party choices hurt, and in my region in northern New South Wales the National Party have already made the choice to unfairly cut the age pension, cut family payments, cut local jobs and cut local health services. Now they want to increase the GST to 15 per cent.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not true.

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Make no mistake about it.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Page will cease interjecting.

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A 15 per cent GST will severely hurt locals. There is nothing fair about increasing the GST—nothing fair at all. Labor will not support an increase in the GST, because increasing the tax would inflict the heaviest punishment on those least able to afford it. For the people on the North Coast of New South Wales, it will be very clear at the next election: it is only Labor that opposes raising the GST to 15 per cent, and it is the National Party that want to increase the GST to 15 per cent. The Prime Minister has confirmed on many occasions that an increase to the GST is on the table.

The GST is a regressive and unfair tax that hits everybody, but it hits low- and middle-income earners, especially pensioners, the hardest. The fact is the Prime Minister, the Liberals and the Nationals are all just out of touch and do not understand that people are already struggling to make ends meet, pay the bills and just get by week after week.

Independent analysis shows that increasing the GST will hurt so many locals across our community, particularly those low- and middle-income earners and especially pensioners. This independent modelling shows that an increase in the rate of GST to 15 per cent would require people in the lowest 20 per cent of income brackets to pay seven per cent more, whilst people in the highest 20 per cent of income brackets would pay just three per cent more of their income. That is not fair.

Lifting the GST to 15 per cent will slug average households almost $8,800 a year. The average household already pays about $5,800 a year in GST, so raising it to 15 per cent would increase that figure by $3,000, a really large amount for so many families. The fact is that the Prime Minister and the Nationals would rather tax hardworking Australians and pensioners than tackle multinational tax avoidance. Increasing the GST would also have a major impact across another range of areas as well. We look at issues like fresh food and health care, aged care and child care. An increase in all of those would make so many services unaffordable for so many.

For this reason, I will continue to fight hard for the people of the North Coast against the Prime Minister and the National Party's unfair plan to increase the GST to 15 per cent, because locals know that National Party choices hurt, and a GST at 15 per cent would really hurt the people of the North Coast of New South Wales.