Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What would happen, Senator Conroy, if we extended the GST to health? It would cost an additional 1.6 per cent of income for the lowest 20 per cent of households but only 0.6 per cent for the highest 20 per cent. And what would happen overall if all these changes were put into place? We would see the lowest 20 per cent paying 4.6 per cent more of their income in tax compared to just 1.7 per cent for the top 20 per cent. This tells us that this is deliberately designed to increase inequality in this country. It is a tax that reaches into the families who people on this side of the chamber will never ever abandoned because we did not come here to increase inequality, we did not come here to punish low-income families and middle-income families and we did not come here to support the GST. So people on the other side of the chamber can vacillate about whether it is on or off the table, but we know that, if it comes before this chamber, senators on this side will be voting against it.

Question agreed to.