James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I would just like to remind those who are listening at home of the motion that is before us here in the Senate moved by Senator Lambie:

The need for the Australian Government to adhere to principles of transparency and accountability for good government instead of ignoring them".

I would like to commend Senator Lambie for bringing forward this motion to the Senate, because this is a government that promised to be the most transparent ever, and in its practice is turning out to be the least transparent in terms of how it deals with questions from the opposition and questions from the crossbench. But, more importantly, the most intrinsic part of transparency and accountability is telling the truth. It is making sure that you do not purvey untruths; that you do not mislead the Australian people; that you do not, to quote old English, hornswoggle; and that, to use the language of young people, you do not cap—that you are not a capper.

Unfortunately, we have a government that was elected on an untruth.

I will take the interjection from Senator Smith. It wasn't an untruth; it was many untruths. But the main untruth is that this government said it had no plans to change the stage 3 tax reforms. And guess what? Over the last almost two years, Prime Minister Albanese and members of this Labor Party, with their fingers and legs crossed, day after day said they had no plans to change the Australian taxation system. We all knew that they were befuddling the Australian people. We all knew that they were prevaricating. We all knew that untruths were being told. But it was not until the last few days that the Prime Minister did come clean. That's why this motion is so important, because it talks about transparency and accountability.

In question time today, members of the coalition asked senior members of the Labor Party where the Labor Party stood on reform or changes to negative gearing. The response from the Labor ministers was that they had no plans. We know what that means. It means they do have plans but they just haven't told us yet. Questions were put to the Labor Party about whether they would put capital gains tax on the family home. What did the Labor Party ministers say? They did not deny it. They did not deny that they had plans to do it. They did not rule out putting, effectively, an inheritance tax on the family home. They did not rule out smashing the aspiration of Australians who want to get ahead in life.

This debate comes down to that core element of truth, of making sure that, when you speak to the Australian people and when you commit to do something, when you as a politician make a promise, you deliver on that promise. What we've witnessed over the last two years is a Labor Party that made a series of promises that they would not change the stage 3 tax plan, and they did. So, if they're prepared to make that change, to break that promise, to purvey that untruth to the Australian people, what does that say about what they're going to do about a capital gains tax on the family home? What does that say to the Australian people about negative gearing? What does that say to the Australian people about anything that is uttered by Prime Minister Albanese or by any member of the Labor Party? Quite simply, you cannot believe a word they say, because this government is a purveyor of untruths and needs to be thrown out at the next election.