Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Hansard source

Governments of all persuasions in the last 10 years have not done a service to our country. By whatever metric you want to balance it, you will find that the Australian people are being disadvantaged. When they talk about tax reform in this place, make no mistake, I say to the good people of Australia, that they are talking about putting your taxes up. It has zero to do with making your taxes lower or reducing your cost of living. What they are looking to do is to get more of your money to pay for more programs to try and fix the problems they've created from their previous programs and ideology that goes with it. It's an extraordinary assessment and indictment of where we are in politics today.

If you want to have a fairer tax system, you will lower taxes. Lowering taxes will mean there is less incentive for people to try and avoid them through complicated schemes or through negative gearing. You will encourage a greater proportion of the population to actually pay some tax. About half the Australian people get more in benefits than they pay in taxation. It is not because there are no jobs out there. It is because we are incentivising people to do the wrong thing. This is what leadership is all about: determining that government is too big, too cumbersome, too expensive. It is not the cure to the problems that we face. It is the problem that we face.

If you want any further indication of that, you have to examine the electricity market in this country. It is a debacle. Every single issue related to it is caused by government regulation, government intervention and government involvement. They will not acknowledge that. They still cook up schemes to try and fix the problems they've created, and it is making it worse. If you want fairer, simpler taxes, if you want fairer, simpler government, you need to vote for the Australian Conservatives.