George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Polley, as you know, we are having a conversation in this country at the moment about options for tax reform. It is an issue, I might say, that was entirely squibbed by the Australian Labor Party when you were in government. Who can forget the Henry tax review? The Henry tax review with its 138 recommendations was kept in a locked box until the last moment. Do you know how many of those 138 recommendations were acted upon by the Rudd government? One out of 138. And do you know what, Senator Polley, it was the worst of them—the MRRT. We have had a master class from your side of politics about how not to do tax reform. What we are doing is encouraging a national conversation about jobs and growth, of which tax policy is a very important feature. Of course different views are going to be expressed about different aspects of tax policy, and one of those things is the GST, and one aspect of that is about the rate of the GST. Different people have expressed different views about the rate of the GST. Most of the people calling for increases in the GST are in a posse of premiers, former and current.