Duncan Spender (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is not my first speech. Senator David Leyonhjelm sought a freer Australia. As his replacement for the Liberal Democrats, I want to continue that legacy. The Liberal Democrats seek to reduce the tax burden, to end the nanny state, to end the police state, to end the war on drugs and, basically, to just leave you all alone. These aren't just slogans. As Senator David Leyonhjelm showed when he introduced 12 detailed bills on each of these matters, we've got real solutions for all of these issues. Tonight, in the 10 minutes that I have, I'd like to run through these 12 bills if I can.

The most recent bill that Senator David Leyonhjelm introduced on behalf of the Liberal Democrats was the Lower Tax Bill 2018. This bill would nearly halve Commonwealth tax. It would deliver, on average, $10,000 of tax cuts to each and every Australian each year, and $8,000 of tax cuts would come in the form of income tax cuts each year. This would be delivered through a $40,000 tax-free threshold and a 20 per cent tax rate after that. The Liberal Democrats also have a fully costed plan to reduce the company tax rate to 20 per cent. This is the final rate of tax paid by foreign investors, and foreign investors react to tax rates when they decide where to invest and where to employ. The Liberal Democrats would also abolish alcohol tax. You shouldn't be taxed more just because of your choice of drink. The Liberal Democrats would also abolish tobacco tax. Smokers already pay a macabre cost for their addiction. Smokers die earlier than everyone else, so they spend much less time on the age pension and much less time in aged care. They already save the taxpayers a bucket load of cash through their addiction. They shouldn't be penalised more through ridiculously high taxes. The Liberal Democrats would also abolish fuel taxes and the luxury car tax because you shouldn't be punished because of the distance you drive. We would also abolish the passenger movement charge because that's a tax on tourism. We shouldn't be taxing one of our best industries. And the Liberal Democrats would abolish the major bank levy because that just gets passed on to all of us.

That was just Senator Leyonhjelm's most recent bill. Before that, he introduced, and nearly passed, the Restoring Territory Rights (Assisted Suicide Legislation) Bill 2015. You own your own body and you should be able to decide how you end your own life, and, if you need it, you should be able to get assistance. In particular, if you're in one of the territories, you have the right, as much as anyone else in Australia, to have your parliament legislate for assisted suicide.

Senator David Leyonhjelm, on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, also introduced the GST-free electricity bill. For us to solve the issues on electricity prices, we need to start building low-cost power generators. But in the meantime, to provide some relief to Australian households, we could have GST-free electricity. This would save households, on average, about $200 a year.

Senator David Leyonhjelm, for the Liberal Democrats, also attacked the war on drugs by introducing a bill to remove Commonwealth restrictions on cannabis. In conjunction with states, this would mean that we could legalise cannabis. Keeping cannabis illegal just makes otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals. It provides a ridiculous burden on our criminal justice system, both police and prisons, that's completely unnecessary, and it props up organised crime. Legalising cannabis generally would also help dramatically improve access to medicinal cannabis.

Senator David Leyonhjelm also introduced a bill to allow small businesses in the retail and hospitality sector to not pay penalty rates on weekends. This would mean that more restaurants, cafes and shops would offer more hours to more workers and stay open more often, for the convenience of all.

Senator David Leyonhjelm didn't shirk the details either; not everything he did was a high-level, sexy issue. One of the bills he introduced was the model litigant bill, an extremely boring bill about making the Commonwealth behave better when it goes to court. Too often, the Commonwealth goes to court and squeezes the other party dry, even when it knows it has no case. The Commonwealth says it follows obligations to act like a model litigant, but Senator David Leyonhjelm's bill would have made those obligations enforceable. It's an important bill we should continue to pursue, particularly with respect to the ATO.

Senator David Leyonhjelm, on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, also introduced a bill to legalise vaping. It is absolutely ridiculous that cigarettes, which are so harmful for your health, are legal, while vaping, which is clearly better for your health, remains illegal. It is scandalous and it is causing people to die. Vaping must be legalised.

Finally, Senator David Leyonhjelm introduced four free-speech bills on behalf of the Liberal Democrats. You may have only heard about his high-profile bill to repeal section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. This bill is important. We have to remember that Andrew Bolt, like him or love him, wrote articles about affirmative action. They might not have been the most polite articles you would ever read, and they had flaws in them, but that doesn't change the fact that we need our columnists to write about affirmative action. Free speech is how we discover the truth in a democracy. Debate is how we discover truth in a democracy. We cannot just say we know for certain that our current affirmative action policies are absolutely correct; there needs to be debate. Andrew Bolt should not have been breaking the law when he wrote his articles. But that's just the most high profile free-speech bill that Senator David Leyonhjelm introduced.

A related bill, generally, was the insult and offend bill. 'Insult and offend' doesn't just appear as words in the Racial Discrimination Act. It is illegal to insult and offend a whole array of government tribunals. This is completely arse about. The government serves us, the public. The public should be free to insult government tribunals as much as they want. There are a massive array of government tribunals where it is illegal to insult them or to offend them, either in or out of the tribunal. This doesn't mean that you'd be allowed to disrupt the proceedings. It would just mean you'd be allowed to insult them. The people are in charge, not the government.

The most important free speech bill that the Liberal Democrats introduced was the bill that reduced restrictions on free speech in national security legislation. The most offensive part of Commonwealth law at the moment, I think, is preventative detention. You, as an Australian citizen, can be taken off the streets by police and detained. You don't need to be charged with anything; you don't even need to be suspected of anything. The police can just detain you. The police give you a phone call. You're allowed to call a family member. But you're not allowed to tell them anything other than, 'Hello. I'm safe, but I won't be available for a while,' then you have to hang up. If you dare to tell your family member, who's worried sick, that you are being detained by your state, you have broken the law and you will go to prison for five years. Someone who is not charged with anything, someone who is not suspected of anything, who just tells their family member that they are being detained by their state—that's a criminal offence, sending you to jail for five years. It's ridiculous. The other aspect of that security bill is to allow journalists to do their jobs reporting on the activities of security agencies, something they should not go to jail for either. Finally, the last free speech bill was to reduce censorship in our country. Free speech involves freedom not just to communicate but also to receive communications. I will continue Senator Leyonhjelm's legacy.