Page 2580 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 August 2015
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MADAM SPEAKER: Address the chair.
MR BARR: Every time you employ someone, he wants to tax it. That is the Liberal Party position—
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Hanson!
MR BARR: tax on insurance, tax on stamp duty, tax on employment and commercial land tax. That is their position, and he is tarred by that. He supports the worst taxes levied by state and territory governments.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: Chief Minister, are you pleased that Manuka newsagency will have to sell something like 50,000 newspapers a year just to cover their rates?
MR BARR: I am pleased to have been able to have delivered a 10 per cent cut to insurance tax for the Manuka newsagency. I am pleased to have been able to ensure that the Manuka newsagency does not pay payroll tax. I am pleased to be able to ensure that everyone in business in the ACT does not get hit with a massive stamp duty bill when they buy into or seek to expand their businesses or their business premises. Yes, tax reform involves trade-offs away from bad, inefficient taxes to the fairest possible form of revenue. Of all the taxes levied by governments in Australia at a state and territory level, rates are the fairest and most efficient.
Insurance tax, stamp duty and payroll tax are relatively less efficient and relatively more unfair than municipal rates. That is why, faced with a choice between this range of taxes, the government chooses the simplest and fairest method that ensures our economy can grow, that tax is fair and that it is simple and more efficient.
That is the difference. The Liberal Party support the bad taxes. They want to be in your pocket every time you transact on property. They want to be in your pocket every time someone takes out an insurance policy. It appears they want to be in your pocket—
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Hanson!
MR BARR: to pay more GST.
Mr Smyth interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Smyth!
MR BARR: That is their position. The Liberal Party’s position: more GST. We keep—
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