Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to participate in this matter of public importance and certainly I want to address some of the issues that have been raised by Senator Cormann, Senator Macdonald and Senator Bernardi. Senator Macdonald argued that it was a normal function of government to deal with national disasters. He argued that there should be no levy because there was no levy when Darwin was hit. He argued that it was the natural service of government to deal with these disasters. But Senator Cormann then really undermined the whole argument from the coalition when he said that a government that has their finances under control does not need a tax or a levy.