Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Everyone agrees that the Australian tax system needs to be reformed. And everyone knows that the next federal election will be a referendum on an increase to the GST. Despite the fact there are many better ways to reform Australia's tax plans, if the Liberals win and achieve a majority in this Senate then they will force on the Australian public an increase to the GST. No matter what promises are made by Liberal members of parliament, the people of Australia know that they cannot trust the Liberals with the GST. If their lips are moving then they are lying.

My network, the JLN, has proposed three simple tax reform policies, which have been costed by The Australia Institute. They do not take from Australia's poorest and they ensure that our top earners contribute their fair share of tax. In ten years these three taxes would raise an extra $94 billion for budget repair. The first is a super-rich death tax, which would raise $5 billion a year and would only affect 0.8 per cent of the Australian population. The second is a capping of the capital gains tax exemption to houses worth less than $2 million, which would raise $3 billion a year—0.56 per cent of the revenue raised by capping capital gains tax on homes would come from Australia's top 10 per cent of earners. The third is a financial transaction tax of between 0.1 per cent and 0.01 per cent on each of the high-frequency share trades by the six    Australian companies that rort our financial markets by using supercomputers, which will raise more than $1.4 billion a year.

These are three simple taxes: death, capital gains and financial transactions taxes that will not take from Australia's poorest but will make the rich pay a fair share and will raise an extra $9.4 billion a year or $94 billion over 10 years. Slow and steady wins the race.