Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

As I indicated in the second reading debate, I have some questions for the government. The minister attempted to answer them during her summing up speech but unfortunately did not. I am not sure whether or not the government deliberately have not taken the point on the additional measures that we negotiated. I will reiterate a number of points. Firstly, those measures were negotiated on the basis of the government saying they were not going to collect the windfall tax and that in fact it was not possible to do that. It turns out that it is.

Secondly, we negotiated those measures on the principle that the bill would not get up and therefore the price mechanism would not be in play anymore, and these measures were always designed to complement the price mechanism. The price mechanism is in play again; therefore our belief is that those measures should also be in place to complement the price mechanism.

Why can’t the government tell this place and the Australian community whether they intend the collection of this tax to continue, come what may, after June? Surely, as good economic managers, they would have a clear understanding of what will happen after June if the tax measure does not get up. Do they have the powers to continue to collect the money and, if so, will they use those powers to continue to collect the money for the next 12 months? Previously, they said they did not know. They have clarified that; hence we are having this debate right now. Surely they know whether they can continue and will continue to collect the money whether or not the bill is passed. They are saying that it is pointless to have the discussion until we know what is going to happen in June. It is not pointless; the Australian community has a right to know what the government’s intent is if the bill does not get up in June. We want to know what the government’s intent is.