John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will do my best but it is very difficult to ignore them. I do not hate unions. I was once a member of the Australian Workers' Union, when I was shearing in 1978 in the Flinders Ranges. I had a choice: buy a union ticket or get out of the shed. They held a gun at my head—buy a union ticket or get out of the shed or you will lose your job. Those opposite, if only you had some business experience. When you have a debt, you grow your business and that is what we are aiming to do.

Those opposite should stand up and say, 'Our tax system is perfect. We have the most perfect tax system in the world. No need to look at it. No need to adjust it. No need to discuss it with the Australian people or with the business sector or with the various interest parties throughout our nation. Don't talk about it; it is perfect.' You are saying our tax system is perfect. I will tell you what is wrong with our tax system. The states have a payroll tax and I think it is a disgusting tax. As John Laws always says, 'The more you tax something the less you have of it.' What do we say when a business grows from, say, the threshold in New South Wales of around 14 to 15 employees? We say, 'We are going to tax you.' For what reason? You naughty business—you grew and you employed people. What a terrible thing to do. This is why we say, 'Don't have the discussion.'

I talk to businesses as I travel around and the payroll tax costs them, but let's not discuss that because the tax system is perfect. Ask those union reps on the other side. They have never run a business. They know all about growing business and handling tax—with no experience! They just do what the unions tell them to do. That is all they do. All they are worried about is who writes their cheques—the CFMEU. They just do as they are told by the union movement. It is amazing that they simply do not understand that we must grow our businesses.

When they were in government they had the best terms of trade our country has ever seen and record prices for iron ore, coal and all the exports. Of course, those prices have collapsed dramatically now, which is a terrible shame for those businesses and for the country as a whole. So they had all this money coming in and of course they just blew it. Now they are experts on taxation. Let us have the discussion. Let us see what we can do better to make our economy stronger, to employ more people, to grow businesses and to help to get Labor's debt under control. You just cannot believe how quickly they could have grown such debt and wasted so much money. (Time expired)