Page 3624 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 19 October 1993
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Mr George Snow
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (9.37): Madam Speaker, I feel it necessary, very briefly, to make a comment. It is really unfortunate that a personal attack has been made on somebody who has made a lot of money in Canberra, but has also created a lot of jobs in this city.
Mr Westende: And paid a lot of taxes.
MRS CARNELL: As Mr Westende said, he has paid a lot of taxes in this city. To take this opportunity to make those sorts of comments on the basis of a letter is very unfortunate.
Mr George Snow
MR MOORE (9.38): Madam Speaker, I feel that it is appropriate to make a small comment on an interjection earlier from Mr Westende, "What is wrong with being a millionaire?". There is nothing wrong with being a millionaire, of course, and I do not think anybody would find a problem with somebody being a millionaire or working towards it. That actually indicated a lack of understanding of what Mr Lamont was going on about. The thing that was wrong was not the hard work and the entrepreneurship and all those positive things about our society, where somebody has been able to make a great deal of money through hard work and good business. That is a positive thing. The difficult thing is when somebody who has got to that position and used the way this society operates turns round and says, from a position of that kind of power or privilege, that, effectively, we ought to be putting more taxes on poorer people, or we ought to be pulling money out of poorer people and delivering it to the wealthier. That is what is wrong with that situation, although Mr Lamont did not put it in those words.
The letter he tabled the other day, which I read and which was effectively reported in the Canberra Times the following day, indicated quite clearly that what was desired by this millionaire was a transfer of money out of the government pocket into his pocket, for example, by removing payroll tax. The exact effect of removing payroll tax is that revenue, instead of being spread evenly and used, is put back into the pockets of those who are already wealthy. That is the point in what is being said this evening. It is not a case of what is wrong with being a millionaire. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a millionaire, and there is nothing at all wrong with the notion of people working hard to do well in their own business. That is something I admire. I feel very positively about people who are prepared to do the kind of work necessary to be successful in business. It is something that we all accept as a normal part of the way our society operates.
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