Ms MARTIN - 1999-08-19
The key sticking point in the Country Liberal Party administration’s public sector pay negotiations is the impact of the GST. Public sector workers know that the GST, which the Country Liberals have wholeheartedly embraced, will cause our cost of living to rise significantly. It is on the public record that Territory Treasury officials have prepared modelling to predict the impact of the GST. Will the Treasurer tell the House how the GST will hit Territorians?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the shadow treasurer for her question because it demonstrates a number of points. It first of all demonstrates that she doesn’t understand that it is a federal government taxation regime that is being introduced. She either doesn’t understand or she’s being deceitful, having started the Clare Martin School of Deceit for the benefit of her colleagues over there.
We have another example of the deceitful nature of the Leader of the Opposition in her assumption that the only outcome from the new tax system is going to be disadvantage. We all know that not to be true. Why does the Leader of the Opposition completely ignore the vast reductions in personal income tax that people will enjoy? They are going to have up to $50 extra in their pockets because of reduced personal income tax.
Why don’t you talk about the positives of the new tax system as well as what you perceive to be disadvantages? Why do you ignore the fact that over the last month a number of electrical appliances have been reduced in cost by 10% because of the reduction of Labor’s 32% sales tax? It was the Labor Party that went to an election, I think in 1994, and said: ‘We won’t put up taxes’. Talk about the School of Deceit! What did they do? They put up wholesale sales taxes. That was one of the first things they did after the election.
Did we hear anything from you then? Did we hear anything from the seven dwarfs then about Labor putting up wholesale sale taxes? No, we didn’t. You were silent on the issue. You were silent on the issue because you are mendicants of the Australian Labor Party and their federal office. That’s why they send their own people up here to review what you’re doing. Even they know how incompetent you are and they know how deceitful you are. They know why you’ve lost election after election after election.
Don’t you want to hear any more? Well, you’re going to anyway. The new tax system will bring benefits not only to personal income taxpayers who will experience a reduction in the amount of tax they will have to pay, directly increasing the money in their pockets. People who are sufficiently interested - and as members of parliament the seven of you should be ashamed that you’re not interested enough to get across it properly - would recognise that for pensioners and others on benefits there will be an offset in relation to the impost that the GST will have. The level of offsetting was recently increased.
In overall terms, I believe, the economy will benefit substantially from the reduced impost of taxation on industry. We’re going to see a reduction in the diesel fuel impost, not only for road transport but also for the railway, which will commence construction ...
Members interjecting.
Mr REED: You don’t like to hear the positive parts, do you? You also want to ignore the history of your Labor colleagues - the taxation structure that they had in place, its impost on Australian business, the negative impact it has had, particularly on export income for this country.
Yes, the new tax system will bring benefits to Territorians. I wouldn’t expect the Leader of the Opposition, deceitful as she is, to stand up in this House and concede that. All she has done in the whole taxation debate is completely ignore the benefits and focus on what she perceives as negative. If that’s not deceit, I don’t know what you’d call deceit. But I know Territorians recognise deceit when they see it, smell it and hear it from the Leader of the Opposition.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I thank the shadow treasurer for her question because it demonstrates a number of points. It first of all demonstrates that she doesn’t understand that it is a federal government taxation regime that is being introduced. She either doesn’t understand or she’s being deceitful, having started the Clare Martin School of Deceit for the benefit of her colleagues over there.
We have another example of the deceitful nature of the Leader of the Opposition in her assumption that the only outcome from the new tax system is going to be disadvantage. We all know that not to be true. Why does the Leader of the Opposition completely ignore the vast reductions in personal income tax that people will enjoy? They are going to have up to $50 extra in their pockets because of reduced personal income tax.
Why don’t you talk about the positives of the new tax system as well as what you perceive to be disadvantages? Why do you ignore the fact that over the last month a number of electrical appliances have been reduced in cost by 10% because of the reduction of Labor’s 32% sales tax? It was the Labor Party that went to an election, I think in 1994, and said: ‘We won’t put up taxes’. Talk about the School of Deceit! What did they do? They put up wholesale sales taxes. That was one of the first things they did after the election.
Did we hear anything from you then? Did we hear anything from the seven dwarfs then about Labor putting up wholesale sale taxes? No, we didn’t. You were silent on the issue. You were silent on the issue because you are mendicants of the Australian Labor Party and their federal office. That’s why they send their own people up here to review what you’re doing. Even they know how incompetent you are and they know how deceitful you are. They know why you’ve lost election after election after election.
Don’t you want to hear any more? Well, you’re going to anyway. The new tax system will bring benefits not only to personal income taxpayers who will experience a reduction in the amount of tax they will have to pay, directly increasing the money in their pockets. People who are sufficiently interested - and as members of parliament the seven of you should be ashamed that you’re not interested enough to get across it properly - would recognise that for pensioners and others on benefits there will be an offset in relation to the impost that the GST will have. The level of offsetting was recently increased.
In overall terms, I believe, the economy will benefit substantially from the reduced impost of taxation on industry. We’re going to see a reduction in the diesel fuel impost, not only for road transport but also for the railway, which will commence construction ...
Members interjecting.
Mr REED: You don’t like to hear the positive parts, do you? You also want to ignore the history of your Labor colleagues - the taxation structure that they had in place, its impost on Australian business, the negative impact it has had, particularly on export income for this country.
Yes, the new tax system will bring benefits to Territorians. I wouldn’t expect the Leader of the Opposition, deceitful as she is, to stand up in this House and concede that. All she has done in the whole taxation debate is completely ignore the benefits and focus on what she perceives as negative. If that’s not deceit, I don’t know what you’d call deceit. But I know Territorians recognise deceit when they see it, smell it and hear it from the Leader of the Opposition.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016