Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I need to speak up for my constituents after both Liberal and Labor speakers, and particularly after Labor's amendments. I acknowledge Senator Gallagher's open admission that this is 'doing it on the run.' My comment is not a reflection on her but on the system. In fact, this is an extraordinary bill to be introduced by a supposedly Liberal government. In fact, peering beyond the verbiage, one can be forgiven for thinking that this a bill being introduced by a Labor-Greens government. This is because it penalises the thrifty and hardworking to subsidise the lazy and the feckless, and this is being hidden by an increasingly complex system. This is simply a tax grab for the now, a short-term sugar hit and bandaid at the expense of medium- to long-term savings, investments and jobs.

This confirms yet again that our potentially abundant nation is being crippled by economic mismanagement and that this has been the case, sadly, for years. This bill is a dog, and all the amendments are just making it a different species of dog. A government that seemingly lacks the strength of will to cut spending is instead raising taxes. Does that sound like a true Liberal government? Rather than solving the long-term problem of an ageing population increasingly burdening the welfare system, in order to raise a relatively small amount of revenue in the short term this legislation will actually increase the future burden expected to be placed on the welfare system and on our children and grandchildren. Those who are striving to provide for themselves in old age are being kicked in the guts so that the government can continue the Gillard-Rudd-Milne government's profligate spending.

This legislation is yet another bandaid on a repeatedly amended superannuation legislative tangle of byzantine complexity. What is desperately needed is a coherent policy reflecting the philosophy that hard work and thrift should be rewarded. I previously thought that the Liberals believed in this, yet this legislation before us attacks the interests of working, everyday Australians and, worse still, contributes to the long-term problem of growing dependency on the age pension.

Pauline Hanson's One Nation believes in rewarding hard work and thrift and in safeguarding the superannuation savings of everyday Australians. We argue that what is needed is a replacement of this dog's-breakfast approach with a superannuation policy akin to the United Kingdom pension system in which contributions from taxpayers are quarantined from general revenue and pensions are paid without means or assets tests in addition to, not instead of, any additional superannuation savings.

Superannuation in this country was intended to replace the age pension. The Hawke government introduced the superannuation guarantee levy to this end because it recognised that an ageing society would progressively place greater and greater burdens on the social security system. Yet there are people rorting the system. That is what happens when government regulates to control people's behaviour. It is a fact. The system as it now stands is broken. It has been broken by successive governments looking for sugar hits at the expense of the people. Just who do these political elite think they are?

Responsible financial governance is nonexistent. The Treasurer in recent weeks admitted that the backpacker tax provisions were proposed without a cost-benefit analysis. We as a nation under Labor-Greens and Liberal-Nationals have wasted tens of billions of dollars on so-called climate initiatives without any cost-benefit analysis. We need to quarantine people's savings from the avaricious clutches of a spendthrift government buying short-term votes through bogus promises while avoiding hard fiscal decisions. The impacts of years of pandering to the Greens are now coming home to roost.

This is our money—the people's money. It is people's hard-earned money. The fact that the ATO is the keeper of these funds tells us all we need to know. People need the reassurance that comes from rules that are consistent and unchanging. Yet, instead, every government changes the rules when we need people to save and be rewarded for their saving. It is no wonder that I am told this morning that a retailer at home safes storage says safe sales are quadrupling. The system as it is now is so filled with jargon. We are supposed to be simplifying it, yet it becomes ever more complex and makes people more dependent on the advice of professionals and funds leeching fees.

People's longevity is increasing, and we need to plan for a system based on hard data and empirical evidence. Super was designed to encourage savings for investment. Next year—and I would invite other parties to join us in this—forums will be held around the country by our party so that we can listen to people's needs and get the data. All we know now is that the system is being destroyed and that our country's tax system is being crippled.

We must turn our attention to the tax system because it is destroying our country. Why, for example, do we tax employment? We in our country all know that when something is taxed its usage is reduced. So why do we tax employment? We tax employment through PAYE schemes. So when a company has just paid a certain amount of net income increase then they are actually paying the total on top, which adds an enormous burden because that is a disincentive to employment. Then we have a direct tax in the states on payroll.

Jim Killaly, the former deputy commissioner for taxation for large companies in international matters, said in 1996 and in 2010 that 90 per cent of Australia's large companies are foreign owned and since 1953 have paid little or no company tax. Just doing rough figures indicates that that could earn us $100 billion a year in taxation revenue.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics in the late 1990s and early 2000s said that for a person who is earning the average annual income 68 per cent of their income is spent on government. Sixty-eight per cent goes to government in the form of taxes, rates, fees, levies, charges and special charges. Our taxation system currently levies fuel at an effective tax rate of 230 per cent. Our taxation system currently levies an effective tax rate on a loaf of bread at around 100 per cent. Similarly for housing it is around 90 per cent.

We could fix the budget black hole and reduce the tax burden of everyday, hardworking Australians with a simple, comprehensive review of our taxation system. We could fix the debt with a simple, modern, fair, efficient tax system. We cannot keep limping along with the current dog of a tax system and the current dog of a superannuation system. We need a comprehensive review, not the fiddling on the run that is coming to us from the major parties and the Greens. Simply increasing tax is not a solution. That is destroying this country. We need to listen to the people. We need to come up with a simple tax system and a fair, efficient and honest tax system. We are blindly stumbling around the real issue, and that is tax. We need to make Australia great again for everyone.

The CHAIR: The question is that opposition amendments (1) to (5), as amended, on sheet 7980 be agreed to. Just to be clear, that includes amendment (5), as circulated, on revised sheet 7980, and the two additional amendments circulated on separate sheets.