Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I can clearly understand why Senator Canavan would want to shut this discussion down. Senator Canavan purports to represent low-income people, but every action that Senator Canavan has taken in here rips away at the living standards of low-income people. What I am trying to say here is that they are a government that cannot be trusted, so, when they stand up and say there is no GST there, there is a GST of 15 per cent waiting there.

Peter Hartcher in The Sydney Morning Herald this morning exposed it. They asked the Treasurer that developed the plans for a 15 per cent GST. The GST is on its way, and the same people that lead this country sat around that cabinet table and inflicted all those problems on the community as a result of that first GST.

This government has not changed one iota. The GST is about attacking those that can least afford it. You will pay an extra $3,200 a year if you get an increase of 15 per cent in the GST with no change to the base. If it ends up being on fresh food, health care, education, water and sewerage, you will pay an extra $6,200 a year. It will stand up and deny it, but it is clear. That mob over there and their minions out there—the Business Council of Australia, ACCI, the business groups—all want a cut to company tax, and how do they want to pay it? They want it to be paid—