Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, because I think this motion does go to what the government is doing with tax reform, with our white paper process, our consultative process. It is important to contrast and to learn indeed from the mistakes of the former government and how they mishandled the tax reform process while they were in government. And they did mishandle it. I do not think anybody could deny that now. They instructed the most pre-eminent adviser on economic matters at the time, the then Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Ken Henry to not even look at the GST. They did not even have the guts to take advice about the GST from their Treasury secretary. That is how scared the Labor Party were of tax reform. Then when they received his report—which had nothing in it about the GST because he was told not to—just before Christmas in 2009, Wayne Swan took it to the beach and read it in between surfing trips. He was so scared by it, he did not release it for four or five months. He kept it under wraps in his office for four or five months. It was not put out to the Australian people for discussion. He was not brave enough and he did not respect the Australian people enough to allow them to look at it and to consider it, to take into account the views of the Australian people.

And what happened? Because the then government's response was developed in a cocoon, without input from the Australian people, without the antiseptic abilities of sunlight, we came up with a disastrous policy option of putting in place a mining tax which very few people could understand, which did not deal with the practical realities of the mining sector or the financial sector and ultimately lead to the destruction, probably, of a Prime Minister or at least played a major role. It was an absolutely disastrous outcome and we will not repeat it.

We are confident that the Australian people can have a mature debate about the tax system. They can have a debate which looks at all elements of the tax system. Of course, the GST is one of the most important parts of the tax system. It raises over $50 billion a year. It is an incredibly important source of funds for our state governments and, of course, it needs to be part of any review into taxes in our nation. Indeed, if you really believe the rhetoric of the other side about the GST, if you took Senator Cameron's contribution to its logical conclusions and if Senator Cameron, through you chair, were serious about the exaggerated and overwrought claims about the impact of the GST, why is the Labor Party not taking a policy to remove the GST? Why is the Labor Party not rolling back the GST? They have tried it before. If you really believe what they are saying about this tax, that it causes devastation across our landmark landscape, that it causes people to go into poverty and not be able to pay their bills, why are they not taking a policy to remove it?