I rise today to oppose vehemently the
Tax Laws Amendment (Temporary Flood Reconstruction Levy) Bill 2011 and the
Income Tax Rates Amendment (Temporary Flood Reconstruction Levy) Bill 2011.
As the Leader of the Opposition said in this chamber today, ‘We have a
Prime Minister who has never met a tax she didn’t like or a tax she
couldn’t hike.’ This new Julia is no different from the old Julia, and
like her predecessors—Rudd, Keating, Hawke and Whitlam - she is addicted to putting up a tax as a means of solution. It just shows a lack of management understanding
This Labor package will place further burdens on Paterson residents
who are already dealing with skyrocketing living costs. Budgets are
stretched to the limit because of recent increases in the price of
power, water, rent, interest rates, groceries and fuel under the
Gillard Labor government. Because our Treasurer, Wayne Swan, cannot
manage a budget, local families have to rework theirs time and time
again—and he is supposed to be a leader.
As Peter Martin wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald on 15 February:
IF YOU think your cost of living is rising faster than what official figures seem to say, you are probably right.
Living cost indices published by the Bureau of Statistics yesterday
show the increases facing working families, age pension households and
welfare beneficiaries have all outpaced the consumer price index.
In the year just gone, working households faced extra costs of 4.5
per cent, aged pensioners 3.1 per cent and welfare recipients 4.5 per
cent. The CPI grew 2.7 per cent.
The bureau says there are different reasons for each of the rises.
Aged pensioners spend a relatively high proportion of their income on
utility bills and fruit and vegetables, the cost of which shot up.
As a group, welfare beneficiaries spend more than most on alcohol
and tobacco, which rose sharply in price largely as a result of the 25
per cent increase in cigarette tax.
Working families are highly likely to face mortgage payments, which
rose by 30 per cent over the year as a result of four Reserve Bank rate
rises and one imposed by the banks themselves.
This just about sums it up and it just is not good
enough. Why not? Because this Labor government cannot get its spending
under control. It is not that it cannot; it is a fact that it refuses
to do so.
The coalition had more than $20 billion in the bank when Labor took
over power. Now we have a debt which will peak at $94.4 billion
according to the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. Because of our
Treasurer’s and Prime Minister’s reckless spending, Australians have
been paying for Labor to borrow more than $100 million every single
day. That places upward cost pressures on just about every single
product you can buy.
The spending and the debt would not be as shameful if the money had
been spent wisely. But just look at our Prime Minister’s long list of
failures. There was the school halls rip-off; that wasted an estimated
$8 billion, which was half of what the entire program cost. Worse
still, it left some schools with more inferior buildings than they had
actually started with.
The border protection failure means there have now been more than
200 illegal boat arrivals under Labor, and it will cost taxpayers more
than $760 million in this financial year alone. Rather than doing what
is necessary to stop people smugglers putting lives at risk, Labor is
building more facilities to house asylum seekers on Australian soil.
They have actually put up the sign ‘open for business’.
The dodgy home insulation tragedy cost $2.4 billion, and was finally
shut down after more than 190 related house fires—not to mention the
deaths. The $50 billion National Broadband Network will take at least
eight years to roll out and will not even reach all of the population.
A paper released on 9 February this year by the Economist Intelligence
Unit, one of the world’s most respected research organisations, shows
that the NBN will cost Australian taxpayers 24 times as much as South
Korea’s cost South Korean taxpayers. Despite the excessive cost, it
will only deliver one-tenth the speed.
I have to mention GroceryWatch, Fuelwatch and the bank switch, all
of which were supposed to help Australian families deal with the cost
of food, petrol and lending. All those promises were abandoned, and now
all of those things cost more. GroceryWatch alone saw this Labor
government waste $7 million in taxpayer money.
I could go on, but there is not enough time. It makes you wonder:
are Treasurer Wayne Swan and Prime Minister Julia Gillard really so
incompetent that they cannot roll out a successful program, or do they
just not care about wasting money and forcing up costs for everyday
Australians? I think it is the latter. After all, a government with a
$350 billion budget should be able to find $1.8 billion—the amount it
hopes to raise through this flood levy. That is like having $350 in
your pocket and asking someone for $1.80.
As Derek from Tuncurry, in my electorate, commented in a letter to me about the flood levy:
We are taxed enough, I am a single parent who
receives no government support, pays most of my income in child
support, escalating electricity costs, food etc. Now to lose several
hundred more dollars a year because the Rudd/Gillard governments have
wasted the national savings on insulation bats and blatant wasteful
spending on ridiculous tin sheds for schools is totally unacceptable.
Labor seems to think that a tax is the answer to
everything. If the Labor Party has its way, 2011 will be the year of
the mining tax, the carbon tax and the flood tax, and that will mean
higher prices, as history shows. In 2008, when the Labor Government
introduced a new tax on alcohol, the price of alcohol went up; when it
introduced a higher tax on cars, the cost of cars went up; and when it
turned its focus to private health insurance, the cost of health care
went up. As has been said, our Prime Minister has never met a tax that
she did not like, or a tax that she was not prepared to hike.
The only way to stop history repeating itself this time is for Labor
to get its spending under control. The coalition offered to help out.
In fact, despite being in opposition, it was the coalition that was
able to identify over $2 billion in savings over the forward
estimates—enough to mean that a flood levy would not be needed. We were
able to do so because we understood that in government you have to make
tough decisions to protect your citizens. The coalition demonstrated
that when last in government, with a clean record of fiscal
responsibility. Then Treasurer Peter Costello entered government with a
massive $100 billion debt from the previous Labor government, but he
made the gutsy decisions he was elected for. Like any responsible
person running a household or business budget, Peter Costello and Prime
Minister John Howard not only paid back Labor’s debt; they also put
some money away for a rainy day. That is the coalition way.
Since Gough Whitlam, the Labor way is to spend as if there is a
money tree at the Lodge, when in fact the money tree is made up of
hardworking taxpayers who will pay for Labor’s ineptitude for years to
come. Labor’s failure to make tough decisions is nothing more than
political cowardice. Today I oppose a legislation package which is
unprecedented in this parliament. Never before in Australian history
have people been asked to donate, responded to that call with
overwhelming generosity and then had more of their money forcefully
stripped away. I have received dozens of letters at my office on this
very issue. Jo-Anne from the town of Paterson summed up her feelings
when she wrote:
I cannot believe that we are being forced to
contribute to the rebuilding of Queensland by the Gillard government.
Is it likely that this is going to pass through parliament? Sadly, it
has made friends and acquaintances of mine not privately donate, and
long term I think it will make a lot of people think about whether to
donate to other disasters in the future.
Australians are a generous people. I see it every
day when travelling in my electorate. As soon as the floods hit, my
office was overwhelmed with offers of money, goods and time. A number
of local events were also held to raise money, including a fundraiser
organised at Salamander Bay Shopping Centre which raised in excess of
$15,000. Of course, that was just one of a number of local events.
There was also a lunch at Corlette, a barbecue at Bulahdelah and a
bucket collection at Australia Day celebrations in Maitland, to name
just a few. It is amazing to see that when people are struggling with
their own finances they still find a way to give. In punishing them
afterwards, by making tax time more costly, Labor is delivering a slap
in the face to those generous Australians.
I join the government in offering my sincere condolences to those
who suffered in the floods: those who lost homes, businesses, loved
ones and friends. I also join the government in thanking the amazing
volunteers and charities who have worked tirelessly to help affected
residents. They have been supported in their work by the provision of
public donations. They have been helping our neighbours, which I
believe is our moral duty. But it is a government’s duty to supply
infrastructure. It is a government’s duty to ensure that the roads are
maintained, levee banks are constructed and bridges are built. It is a
government’s duty to ensure that it handles public money with the
respect it demands. Labor has not done that and it does not deserve to
be trusted with further public money, garnered through another new tax.
These are completely unnecessary bills, which could easily be made
redundant if the Gillard Labor government made a few tough decisions. I
urge the Prime Minister to do the job she was elected for: to cut
spending, instead of introducing a great big new tax. That is the best
way to help our fellow Australians—in fact, all Australians. You will
not maintain faith in the Australian spirit of helping your mates out
with the Labor way of forcing people to do what is in their nature.
Accordingly, I vehemently oppose this package of bills.
