Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Amendment (Make Electricity GST Free) Bill 2017. I'll detail in a moment why Labor, regrettably, Senator Leyonhjelm, will oppose this bill.

However, before I get onto that, I think I do need to respond to some of the absolute misrepresentations made to the chamber by Senator Fawcett. I start by making this observation: I understand why Senator Brandis often attacks South Australia and its electricity system, but I don't understand why a South Australian Senator, even a Liberal Senator, would attack South Australia. He knows full well why we have problems with electricity in South Australia. We have problems with electricity in South Australia because his government—the Olsen government—after promising not to sell the electricity service in South Australia reversed that decision and sold the electricity system in South Australia. That was the start of all of South Australia's electricity problems.