Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

They set out to be vandals and they could not even do that properly. I thought at least they were good at destruction but, no, they could not even do that properly. The Senate on the second reading defeated the luxury car tax bill, as is its right. It was defeated on the second reading, unfortunately, before there was any detailed debate, before senators could move amendments and before there was any real consideration of the bill.

That was a decision the Senate took this morning. Unfortunately, it knocks a half a billion dollar hole in the government surplus—half a billion dollars we do not have any longer—that undermines the capacity of this government to fight inflation and to bring downward pressure on interest rates. The surplus that was designed to help Australian families by fighting inflation by putting downward pressure on interest rates has been fundamentally undermined by the decision to defeat the luxury car tax and knock a half a billion dollar hole in the budget.

I want to make it clear: the government is not giving up the fight to defend this budget and we are not giving up the fight to have the luxury car tax bill carried by this parliament. Next week we will reintroduce the bill—