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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 2603 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

The Greens stand out amongst Australian political parties as being the only ones prepared to fight for a tax system which facilitates greater social equity and environmental sustainability and which stimulates enterprise consistent with those two aims. The Federal coalition and the ALP are both fixated on the GST. We say, "Let us have everything on the table".

Mr Berry: Tired old rhetoric.

MS TUCKER: This is not rhetoric. This is a proposal and I would like an answer from Mr Berry. I have written to him with this proposal. Let us remember that our taxes pay for services that governments provide - education, health, looking after the environment, transport, social security. Most Australians are not aware that already the balance is weighted against average taxpayers so that for every dollar of company tax Australians pay $4 in personal tax.

I am strongly opposed to the course the Prime Minister has mapped out for this debate and I am far from satisfied with the Chief Minister's willingness to comply with that course. The Prime Minister has made it clear that his agenda is to introduce a GST and lower income taxes. He has established a cosy task force of chosen advisers to advance that agenda. Meanwhile, Labor's creativity has been to oppose the GST - another example of the demise of the two-party system that we talked about yesterday. It is not surprising that both parties have been involved over many elections in bidding down the taxation system for short-term electoral gain.

I wrote to the Chief Minister, Mr Berry, Mr Moore and Mr Osborne on 7 August, seeking their support in calling for a national tax summit. I thank Mrs Carnell and Mr Moore for their replies. However, I believe the course of action Mrs Carnell proposed in her reply is not nearly strong enough. The Chief Minister should immediately call on the Prime Minister to ensure that there is wider community input and discussion. Instead, she has indicated that community participation would be limited to whatever input the ACT Government seeks to get from community organisations as an input to discussion with other State leaders and the Commonwealth after the Prime Minister's task force has been allowed to advise on the parameters of the debate.

I propose that this Assembly support the call for a national taxation summit. The summit was originally proposed by the Tasmanian Greens. It would be a golden opportunity for the people of Australia, through peak bodies, to make and contribute to the debate. A tax summit would also provide a forum in which to explore opportunities for cooperation between the States and Territories and eliminate the destructive process of State competition which obscures those opportunities. Australia's revenue base has fallen by $8 billion to $10 billion in the last 10 years. Australia is, contrary to many publicly held myths, a lowly taxed country. In fact, we raise about $15 billion less, relative to our GDP, than New Zealand.

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