Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I guess my journey on tax advocacy really started in around 2006. I am just really disgusted that we are here today responding to a dirty deal done by the Greens in the middle of the night. It just shows how little they understand what they are actually doing. But I want to talk for a moment about my journey. It shows again the inexperience of the Greens. I come out of a trade union, and I have spent the majority of my working life working with low-paid workers.

In 2006 we thought we, along with members, had done a really good deal at a public hospital. We had got workers a four per cent wage increase. But, when we put it to the general membership, they rejected it overwhelmingly. We were really shocked because we did think this was a good deal. We had done it with members. The issue that they raised with us was that the cost of living for them had gotten to the stage where they needed a much bigger increase than the four per cent that was on offer by the state government. Their rent had gone up. Their utilities costs had gone up. Food costs had gone up. And four per cent really was not going to cut it.

So we sat down with union delegates and low-paid hospital workers—orderlies, cleaners, personal care workers, enrolled nurses, technicians and so on—and we worked out that there was no way we could ask the state government for the sort of money, the sort of wage increase, that those low-paid hospital workers needed to cover their costs. So we started to look at what the tax system offered us. What did it offer for low-paid workers? Obviously, to try to lobby the state government and agitate for the state government to give workers the sort of increase in wages they needed was not possible without additional revenue. That was really when my tax journey started. It was absolutely motivated by low-income workers in Western Australia saying to me, as their elected representative, 'A four per cent wage increase just doesn't cut it.'

It just shows how out of touch the Greens are that they do not appreciate, that they do not understand, because none of them have ever really been in front of low-paid workers, that the deal that they have done here today to lock away the transparency of private companies absolutely hurts low-income workers because it stops the government getting increased revenue. I have heard the Greens go on about how we have a revenue problem in this country. It just shows that their words speak a lot louder than their actions. Someone who really believes that we have a revenue problem in this country would not have done the dirty deal that they have done in the middle of the night. It hurts low-paid workers, like hospital workers in Western Australia, because the government continues to get a shrinking revenue. Let us see how they explain that.

But of course low-income workers do not support the Greens. Low-income workers do not look to the Greens for their salvation. Labor stand for low-income workers, and we stand for tax transparency.

It is amazing. I am not quite sure how the Greens who have sat on the Senate committee that has looked at the kinds of rorts of 7-Eleven—a company on the secret list, a company the Greens have just given an exemption to—think. How do they justify the stories we have heard from 7-Eleven workers who have been ripped off? Yet today they have sat with the government and said, 'It's okay for 7-Eleven to rip workers off, and we're going to continue to allow them to sit on a secret list so that ordinary Australians don't really get to see the sorts of profits that 7-Eleven have made.' I can tell you that 7-Eleven have given us the run-around on that Senate inquiry. We keep calling them back, and we keep calling them back, and we ask them more questions, and they can hide. They can hide, and the Greens on that committee are going to allow 7-Eleven to continue to hide.

I wonder what the Greens will say to the low-paid cleaners in this place, who need the government to increase its revenue so they can get a decent wage. They are on strike this week. Those cleaners are on strike this week. Maybe the Greens have not noticed. They certainly do not care, because if they cared they would not have done the dirty deal they have done this week. It shows how out of touch they are with low-paid workers, particularly cleaners cleaning their offices. What are they going to say to them? They say: 'Look, we've done a dirty deal. We're going to allow these companies—companies that ripped off workers—to continue to be on a secret list. We're going to allow these companies to avoid paying tax. That's what we're going to do as the Greens party.' What a disgrace.

Last night we had an event here at Parliament House which a couple of the Greens came to. When you came to meet with those sacked MV Portland workers last night, you did not have the decency to tell them you had done a dirty deal with the government. You proudly stood there and said, 'We're with workers.' Well, I tell you what: I have already told the MV Portland workers that came here last night that the Greens do not stand with them. How could they front that function last night and say to those MV Portland workers, 'We're with you'? Clearly, the Greens are not with them, because no-one who stands with sacked MV Portland workers would have done that deal that the Greens did in the middle of the night. Had they already done the deal when they were standing in front of the MV Portland workers? Who knows? But you do not stand there and say one thing, 'We're with you,' and then turn around and do this dirty deal with the government on the other hand. You do not do that. It is hypocrisy.

And we have heard them today—what wusses. I am glad none of them were union officials, because boy they have sold out really easily. You have to be tough in negotiations. You have to stand up to the government, and this is a just cause. The Australian tax network must be throwing its hands up saying, 'We've done all this work for a couple of years and the Greens, in the middle of the night, on the second last day of sitting for this year, struck a deal with the government.'

My union, United Voice, have advocated so hard for tax reform, because tax reform is a salvation for low-income workers. I do not know what they will be saying about the dirty deal the Greens have done this morning. Again, it just demonstrates that they have no understanding of what it is like to walk a day in the shoes of a low-paid cleaner, a low-paid hospital worker, a low-paid early childhood educator or a low-paid hospitality worker. They have no idea, because they so quickly sold them out.

They are allowing these companies to continue behind this veil of secrecy. This morning we heard Senator Dastyari say in this place that one in six of those companies on that secret list are either political donors or government contractors, and of course we know who they donate to: they donate to the Liberal Party and the National Party. That is the deal the Greens have done. Let them hold their heads up and stand like they did last night with the MV Portland workers and say that the Greens were proud to do a deal that continues to let one in six on that list donate to the Liberal Party and the National Party in order to get government contracts but to hide their tax obligations. That is the deal the Greens have done in the middle of the night.

As Senator Dastyari also told us this morning, the $100 million figure was not just plucked out of the air, and the Greens know that. It was there because it captures 1,000 of Australia's largest private companies. We all understand that the Turnbull government always wants to protect its mates at the big end of town, and we also know that Mr Turnbull and his wife have a company that was on the secret list. A couple of weeks ago in this place, when that list was first published, I stood up and informed the Senate of that—and guess what those opposite did? They tried to call a point of order on me. They did not want me, through the Senate, to tell the Australian public that Mr Turnbull and his wife were on that list. During my 10-minute speech, I think they got up at least twice to pull that point of order on me: 'We can't have a Labor senator from Western Australia saying that Mr Turnbull and his wife, Lucy, are on that list!' The Greens know that, and that is who are they are protecting. Who would have thought the Greens would line up behind the Prime Minister of this country and run a protection racket? That is what they have done today, and I am angry about it, because I stand for low-paid Australians.

I stand for paying my tax, and I have never, ever complained about paying my tax. It is my obligation as a citizen in this country to pay my tax, not to set up some shonky scheme to avoid it. I do not hold any shares, and you can look at my senators' interests. I have no interest in hiding my tax. I do not have private companies. I want to pay my tax, and I can tell you that members I work with at United Voice also want to pay their tax. Why is it that we pay our taxes but the Turnbull government and the Greens want to allow the Prime Minister and companies like 7-Eleven to be on this secret list to avoid that transparency? Why have the Greens done that? It is because they do not represent ordinary working Australians; that is why the Greens have done that. And how dare they stand with those MV Portland workers last night and somehow pretend they are with them? They are not with people when they do that—they are absolutely not.

This legislation is flawed because it does not go far enough, and for Labor it was worth hanging out for a better deal. Just two weeks ago the Greens were with us, but we heard Senator Di Natale stand in this place and say this bit of legislation was 'better than nothing'. It is not. We should have stared the government down, but again the Greens are trying to find some relevancy, just like the deal they did a couple of months back that affected part pensions in this country. And now most organisations believe the Greens sold out middle Australia with that deal, which they did. They are just not experienced at this stuff. It is not where they come from. Their hearts are not with ordinary working Australians. Their hearts are now with the Turnbull government, who just wants to continue to protect these big companies, and this is not good enough.

We know where the Liberals stand on tax transparency. They have always voted against Labor's move. They are predictable. We know they want to protect their mates at the big end of town. They voted against the moves that Labor put up when we were in government time and time again. It is what we expect from them. Their constituency is very clear. They do not support ordinary working Australians. They have been completely silent on what is happening to those Australian seafarers on the MV Portland. They apparently have little understanding of or compassion for cleaners on strike in this building this week. They took money out of the pockets of early childhood educators. They took money out of the pockets of aged-care workers, and now the Greens have joined them. That is now what the Greens stand for. Well, let's see where the Greens stand on the GST. We know where Labor stands. We oppose a big fat new tax. We oppose an increase in the GST to 15 per cent. We oppose it. We believe it, and it is who we are.

It is not who the Greens are. Maybe the next thing they will be trotting up to support the government on is a big, fat new increase in the GST to 15 per cent and putting it on everything. They do not represent low-paid workers; Labor does. That is who our constituency is. We know the damage a GST would do to low-income earners. But let's see where the Greens go next on the GST—striving for relevance, clinging to the tails of the Turnbull government. What a place to find yourself in at the end of the year. What a place to be. I am proud to be Labor. I am proud to stand for tax transparency. (Time expired)