Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong. Will the minister rule out increasing taxes to pay for the new spending promises the government has made since the May budget as advocated by none other than Senator Doug Cameron?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the senator should know, if he read the budget papers, the highest taxing government in Australia's history was in fact the government in which he was a minister, the Howard government. The tax to GDP—

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's not the truth!

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection: I am told I am not telling the truth. The tax to GDP ratio—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Wong, ignore the interjections. There is a primary question that has been asked by Senator Abetz. Address the primary question; ignore the other questions that might come from an aside.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The tax to GDP ratio, tax as a share of the economy, the sensible way to consider levels of taxation, peaked at 24—

Opposition senators interjecting—

They don't like the truth; it hurts—peaked under which government? The Howard government—24.2 per cent—and was in fact still high at 23.7 per cent in 2007-08 when they left office. In fact, if the government was receiving the same level of taxation in terms of tax to GDP ratio that we inherited from those opposite, revenue in this financial year would be $24 billion higher than is projected in the budget figures. The reality is: we on this side have committed to keeping the tax to GDP ratio at or below the level we inherited and that is what we have been doing. The 2012-13 figure for tax to GDP in the budget papers is 22.1 per cent.

The only party at the moment that is actually advocating for a tax increase is of course the one opposite—1.5 per cent increase to the company tax rate to pay for Mr Abbott's millionaire's paid parental leave scheme; an increase in company tax brought to you by the Liberal Party. Of course what it also wants to do is take back the tax cuts for working Australians this government has put in place.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think most Australians understand the debt is simply deferred taxation. Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Does the minister agree with the Prime Minister's statement that 'every time we announce something we properly account for it and properly fund it'? Can the minister confirm to the Senate that the Prime Minister's announcements about the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Gonski review and the new dental scheme have all been properly accounted for and properly funded? Can the minister give the Senate details of the accounting and the funding?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government has implemented a range of social reforms over five years. They include health care, pension reform, paid equity and paid parental leave, and all of these have been fully funded and properly accounted for—unlike those opposite who have never complied with Peter Costello's Charter of Budget Honesty, who used accountants who were found to have breached professional conduct rules when they did their so-called audit of Liberal Party election promises and whose immigration costings are based on the advice of a catering company.

I can say through you, Mr President, to Senator Abetz: in relation to those policies, this government will comply with the Charter of Budget Honesty that Peter Costello put in place, and I invite him to make the same commitment on behalf of the coalition.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question: will the minister actually answer the previous supplementary question by providing the Senate with details of how the new spending promises the government has made since the May budget will be funded?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We will release our MYEFO. When will you release your policies? We will release our MYEFO, our budget update, and I also refer those opposite to the comments of the Prime Minister when she made the Press Club speech dealing with the Gonski reforms, the education reforms, to lift the educational standards of Australians because that is so important to the future productivity and prosperity of the country. Really, to be lectured by Senator Abetz about costings of policies when this economic team opposite us has never once delivered a policy that complied with the provisions of the Charter of Budget Honesty and they have never revealed the $70 billion of cuts that they want to take?