Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a very good thing that the opposition members cannot see the looks of abject terror on the faces of those young people up in the gallery, because the longer they have been here in Parliament House the more they have come to understand what the impact will be on them as adults should Labor ever again get into government. What we have seen here today is an absolute effort on the part of the Labor Party to deny their own responsibility for where we are today. Be under no illusion. I suggest to the young people up there to get their pens out and take note. This is the statistic that I want you to record: in this country today, we are paying $1.2 billion a month not on repaying the debt but on paying the interest on Labor's debt—it goes out the window every day. Do you know what that money stands for? It stands for a new primary school every 12 hours. Twice a day, seven days a week, because of Labor's effort in government, you are losing the opportunity for a new primary school every 12 hours, or a new major teaching hospital every eight weeks. Every two months we are denied the opportunity—you are denied the opportunity—for a new teaching hospital. That is what we are discussing here this afternoon. Heavens above! All Prime Minister Turnbull did was to say, 'We need to have a conversation.' There is no proposal before this chamber or the other place for a new GST.

What a short memory poor old Senator Collins has when she talks about the GST. Who was the first major proponent of a goods and services tax in the federal parliament? It was Mr Keating, the then Treasurer of this country. After the Liberal coalition government introduced a GST, what did Labor do in government? Over six years, I never heard a single word by Labor in government that they would rescind the goods and services tax. Have you? Has anybody? That is a good project for the young group: 'Go back to school next week, do the research and come back and tell us: did Labor in government want to remove the GST?' No, they did not.