Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I am referring to the agreement between the government of Australia and the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands on the exchange of information with respect to taxes done at Majuro on 12 May 2010. The operative words here are 'exchange of information with respect to taxes', because, of course, taxes are what this government knows a lot about but it does not know so much about 'exchange of information'. We were promised a new era of openness and transparency in government. We were promised that this Prime Minister would let the sun shine in. But we have multibillion-dollar new taxes imposed by this government to fund multibillion-dollar new levels of expenditure. This is a government which spends too much and borrows too much, which leaves this government in debt and deficit. We are now looking at $107 billion worth of government—

Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on a point of order, Madam Acting Deputy President, that goes to relevance. I know that we usually range fairly widely when we are taking note of government documents, including treaties, but I do think that Senator Cormann is possibly stretching the normal practice of Senate procedure.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator McLucas. I shall pay careful attention to Senator Cormann's remarks and draw his attention to the standing orders.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Madam Acting Deputy President. I can well understand why Senator McLucas is very touchy when I talk about the lack of information that is being exchanged by this government, even though they committed to the good people of the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands that they would exchange information.

Government senators interjecting—

What I am wondering is whether the people in the Republic of the Marshall Islands have had any more luck than the senators in this chamber, because, of course, the senators in this chamber should not be treated any worse than the good people in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. It is for that reason I am complaining that we are being treated way worse than the citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands—and, of course, we should not be treated by this government like a bunch of mushrooms.

I will get to the pertinent facts straight­away, Madam Acting Deputy President. It is an issue that arose earlier today. More than 150 days ago I asked this government for some information about how they were spending taxpayers' money here in Australia. Specifically I asked:

How much of the stimulus package remains to be spent for each of the following financial years: (a) 2010-11; (b) 2011-12; and (c) 2012-13.

It is true that the government has taken so long to answer this question and to exchange this information with the Senate—and I am sure they would have sent the information to the Marshall Islanders but not to us. So here we are and 2010-11 is now finished. The financial year is now over. So that information should be very readily available but it has not been provided. The 2011-12 one has since been provided to a Senate estimates committee—I grant them that—but the information for 2012-13 has not been. This question has been on the Notice Paper for more than 150 days and to this day the government has refused to provide the information to the Senate. I hope that the good people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands have more luck in exchanging information about taxation with this government than we have had in trying to scrutinise their expenditure, because this government's economic team is led by a Treasurer who is incompetent, who has been fiscally reckless, who has presided over four successive deficits in a row and who comes in with one new multibillion-dollar tax after another.

After the Henry tax review observed that we have way too many taxes, with 125 taxes around Australia, and after the Henry tax review observed that 10 of those taxes collect 90 per cent of the revenue, with the remaining 115 taxes collecting 10 per cent of the revenue, and after the Henry tax review observed that we should have fewer taxes than the 125 taxes, this Labor government has added another five taxes to the mix. We are now going to be talking about the student tax, the flood tax, the carbon tax, the mining tax and the LPG tax. One tax after the other comes out from this government, yet this government is not prepared to be accountable to the Australian parliament when it comes to explaining how much of taxpayers' dollars they are spending and when. Very specifically, I think it is an absolute disgrace that, after the more than 150 days that question No. 437 has been on the Notice Paper, this incompetent Treasurer refuses to be accountable to this parliament, refuses to provide any information about how much of the stimulus package remains unspent for 2012-13. I hope that somebody in the press gallery will try their luck and get this information from the Treasurer. Certainly we here in the parliament are unable to do so as, sadly, we are unable to do way too often, because this is a secretive government which always has something to cover up, which always has another example of incompetence or wasteful spending to cover up. No doubt that is why the Treasurer is not sharing this information, not exchanging this information, with the Australian parliament.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am drawn to enter this debate having been encouraged by the very fine words of my colleague Senator Cormann but also having been encouraged by the interjections from senators opposite. I have actually been to both the Marshall Islands and Mauritius. I have to say they are both great countries. The Marshall Islands has a very big shipping register but it is a developing country. It does not have the techniques, the public service and the technology that the Australian government has. It seems incredible to me that some information, which must be clearly at the Treasurer's fingertips, cannot be provided in answer to questions on notice from Senator Cormann after more than 150 days. What if it took 150 days to supply the sort of tax information that is required by these two treaties to the governments of the Marshall Islands and Mauritius? Surely it would be available in Australia, with all of its public servants, with all of its technology and with all of its information systems. There are thousands and thousands of public servants in this town who are there to record this sort of information. I am sure that if the Treasurer had one ounce of intelligence and ability—and I will give him credit for having one ounce, perhaps not much more—that information would be available. If the government of Mauritius or the government of the Marshall Islands were asking for it, it would be readily available; but when the opposition asks for it, suddenly it becomes all too hard. For a government that pays lip service to accountability and openness, this is an absolute disgrace. But what would you expect from a government led by a leader who solemnly promised not to introduce a carbon tax in her government? She did that one year ago today. When you cannot believe the Leader of the Labor Party, who is currently our Prime Minister, on that basic promise, how can you believe her on her promise of openness and accountability, which is required in relation to the explanation of taxes?

If these developing countries, the Marshall Islands and Mauritius, with their limited resources can exchange their tax information with Australia's tax information, why on earth can't the Treasurer of our nation supply what must be very basic information that he would have at his fingertips? One can only assume that, yet again, this government is demonstrating not only its incompetence but its dishonesty. It is demonstrating its inability not only to properly manage the country but also to comply with any of the promises it made in relation to (a) 'no carbon taxes in the government I lead' and (b) the openness and accountability that was supposed to be part of the new paradigm, which is this awful, dysfunctional government that we have 'not running' Australia at the present time.

Question agreed to.