Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of all answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by opposition senators today.

GST, goods and services tax revenue, to our Commonwealth is, of course, a lifeblood when it comes to the provision of services in all of our states and territories. One of the key principles of Federation is that no matter where you live in this country you should have access to good services that meet your needs in health, in education, in infrastructure. The way many of our states and territories pay for this is through our allocation, in each state or territory, of the goods and services tax revenue, GST revenue.

In a state like Tasmania, a small jurisdiction, we depend on this vital stream of income to be able to support Tasmanians in getting the services they need. That's what good Tasmanian representatives stand up for—to ensure that our community receives what we need. This is why I was most bemused, rather upset, mildly alarmed by some comments that were made by Australia's Prime Minister, the Labor Prime Minister, Mr Albanese, when he was in Tasmania on 25 September, not so long ago. He was there announcing support for a good health project—so I give kudos to him, in partnership with the Tasmanian Liberal government, for that. What alarmed me most were the Prime Minister's answers to some questions he was asked about a very unique Tasmanian issue, or, at least, one that is accentuated in Tasmania because of our reliance on GST. He was asked by a journalist, at a doorstop, on 25 September:

Here in Tasmania, will you exempt the Macquarie Point Stadium from GST calculations?

The Prime Minister answers, 'No.' The journalist says, 'Why not?' The Prime Minister says:

Because if we did that, we'd have to do the same for the Olympic sites in Queensland, for every infrastructure project in the country.

That was the Prime Minister on 25 September.

By that, I read that the Prime Minister says, 'We can't give you, Tasmania, your GST exemption on this $240 million project.' Two hundred and forty million dollars is a significant amount of money, and it's a project that I'm sure will bring in great revenue streams for Tasmania eventually. But the Treasury documents that were provided through Senate estimates last defy what the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister said that we will not get our GST because Queensland's Olympic infrastructure was not exempt from GST. Yet, in a document entitled Directions issued to exclude specific Commonwealth payments from the calculation of GST relativities, Treasury officials say, about the financial year 2024-25:

QLD: Payments to Queensland for sporting venue infrastructure for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Prime Minister says, 'No exemption for them,' but Treasury has already signed off on one. So the Prime Minister's first excuse as to why Tasmanians are being ripped off by $240 million fails. Treasury belled the cat on that absolute misleading.

Then, the Prime Minister went on to talk about when he was infrastructure minister in the last wonderful period of time of Labor rule in our country, and he said, in the same interview:

But infrastructure across the board is not exempt. I was an Infrastructure Minister for six years, I assure you there was no GST exemptions during that period.

Well, I will read from a document entitled Project agreement for Macquarie Point Railyards Precinct Remediation Project: an agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia and Tasmania. It was signed by the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP on 2 October 2012. There's a line in here that says:

15. The Commonwealth will provide a total financial contribution to Tasmania of $50 million in respect of this Agreement. All payments are GST exclusive.

That is, they are exempt from GST calculations. Again the Prime Minister points to Tasmania not being able to get its GST exemption on the stadium funding, something it deserves and should get as an equal state in our federation, because (a) the Brisbane Olympics infrastructure wasn't getting an exemption—wrong, it is!—and, (b) he says when he was infrastructure minister he never signed off on exemptions for any infrastructure project. Well, here is a signed document, by his hand, exempting $50 million of expenditure on an infrastructure project in Tasmania, eerily, on the same site.

I question: What is Mr Brian Mitchell, the member for Lyons, doing? What is Ms Collins, the member for Franklin, doing when it comes to asking for Tasmania's fair share? I ask: what are the Tasmanian Labor senator team doing in asking for Tasmania's fair share? Under Labor, we will be ripped off $240 million. Every other state and territory gets their fair share, except Tasmania. Queensland gets its fair share for sporting infrastructure GST exemptions; Tasmania, under this Labor government, does not. And that's a shame. And that is something that Tasmanian voters will know about when it comes to the next election. They have a chance now to sign a letter that they didn't sign just a few months ago.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Forgive me for being just a little confused here. We've got the good senator from Tasmania who opposes the stadium, opposes his own Liberal state government, who says that the stadium shouldn't be built, who criticises the government at a federal level for making a contribution—I'm just a little concerned about how confused my Tasmanian community will be. Not only are you misleading this chamber in relation to how GST is allocated but you're propping up a Liberal state government that is putting Tasmania further and further into debt every single day. They're in chaos. The minister responsible for infrastructure, the Hon. Michael Ferguson, had to step away. Why did he have to step away? Because he failed as that minister and had to step away.

Not only that, if you want to talk about the stadium, why don't you tell the full story and say how your colleagues in Tasmania have not allocated any funding for the underground car park. How much is that going to cost the Tasmanian community? How much further are your colleagues that you're defending going to run Tasmania into debt?

But could you clarify at some stage: are you a supporter of the stadium or not? Because you're coming in and misleading the chamber in relation to the allocation of funding of GST, so let's just clarify things, shall we? Commonwealth payments for sporting infrastructure related to the hosting of international sports events are usually treated as not impacting GST calculations by the independent Commonwealth Grants Commission, which you, Senator Duniam, know very well. You're just trying to be a little too tricky. Maybe you're taking too many lessons from Mr Dutton.

But why was it then that, as a Tasmanian senator who is so genuinely concerned about getting our share of the GST, you supported a Liberal government with a Liberal minister for health—none other than Mr Peter Dutton, who, when he was Minister for Health, was voted the worst health minister in Australia's history—that cut $50 billion from health, including from Tasmanians, who have some of the worst chronic illnesses in this country? At least, in the rambling contribution of my good friend Senator Duniam, he acknowledged that it was this Labor government, not his state government, that made a commitment to fund the new heart unit in Launceston. It was the Liberal state government after the last state election who backed away from that commitment and had to be bailed out by this government. We put $120 million into it. The Prime Minister announced this on 25 September in Launceston, along with, I might add, a very grateful Mr Rockliff, the Liberal Premier. And why was he so grateful? Because he's on a very rocky road, because he knows that former senator Eric Abetz is after his job. That brought a smile to Senator Duniam's face, because he knows it's true. It's only a matter of time.

But let's not forget what else the Prime Minister announced when he was in Launceston, in the great state of Tasmania, with our fabulous education minister, Jason Clare. It was further funding for education to assist young Tasmanian kids to reach their potential, which no previous Liberal government, state or federal, has had the gumption to do. So I am proud to stand here and defend this government, because there is no-one who has been a better friend to Tasmania than our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, in terms of what he has delivered, both previously when he was a minister and now as the leader. He has been to Tasmania a lot more times than has Peter Dutton. And I might say this: a good thing about my recent visits to schools across Tasmania was that they didn't even know who the Leader of the Opposition was, let alone like him.

Question agreed to.