call the member for Perth Thank You Deputy Speaker to stand in this place
and provide a fair go for Western Australia is an honour to often Western
Australians feel like they are the Forgotten state of the Commonwealth when
it came to the distribution of the goods and services tax that Western
Australians pay that was definitely true today the Parliament is recognizing
Western Australia the parliament is recognising the tax that Western
Australians pay and the principle that they should get a fair share of that tax
back in their State it would be remiss of me not to start by congratulating
some of the campaigners who have led to this reform and it has been a campaign
it's been a campaign that's taken many years I congratulate my fellow labor
colleagues the WA labor members of this place the WA labor senators I also
congratulate the leader of the Opposition the shadow treasurer and the
Shadow Minister for finance they've all listened carefully to Western Australia
they've listened to what it is that Western Australians say they need and
they listened when Western Australians elected the Mark McGowan Labor
government in 2017 saying the current team were unable to deliver a fair share
for WA and I also congratulate the now treasurer of Western Australia Ben Wyatt
it's not just been a campaign that has involved members of the parliaments of
state and federal parliament it's involved the West Australian and once a
week The Sunday Times also campaigns for a fair share of the GST for Western
Australia I also acknowledge a range of trade unions have campaigned to ensure
that Western Australia gets its fair share so that we can fund the vital
services that Western Australians rely on and equally the Western Australian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been allowed in clear voice for change
in the distribution of the GST the goods and services tax introduced on 1 July
year 2000 back then Deputy Speaker I was in year ten my friends and I thought
that despite not being super keen on the introduction of the GST a effectively
regressive tax we thought it would be nice to go and uh be some of the first
Western Australians to pay the GST so hatched a plan that we'd go down to the
local Maccas we would wait till the clock struck midnight and we would pay
we would buy ourselves some McDonald's and pay the GST being some of the first
West Australians to do so my parents did not think this was as good an idea and I
did not do that but I raised the importance of visiting McDonald's
because when we look at the share of the GST that Western Australia received it
got down to basically 30 cents in the dollar now 30 cents in the dollar or 30
cents doesn't buy you much but back in 2000 30 cents would buy you a McDonald's
ice cream 30 cents no longer even buys you a McDonald's ice cream in fact in
preparing for this speech I've got to say I struggled to find much that you
can buy for 30 cents these days so I had to do some maths instead 30 cents will
buy you 3 kilograms of iron ore 30 cents will buy you roughly 612 staples it will
buy you less than 500 milliliters of coca-cola so it's no surprise that
Western Australians thought that 30 cents in the dollar was completely
unfair it was a pittance and it was unacceptable the need to provide Western
Australia with a fair share of the GST is also a need for us at the federal
level to make sure that we are providing what that state needs to run the state
economy when it comes to the suffering that Western Australia's experienced
during this time we cannot understate that suffering I think the anger is well
highlighted by the fact that I have been out of count and I'm sure this is an
inaccurate number and probably vastly understate the number of editorials but
there were 78 editorials in the past six years in the West Australian alone
calling for reform of the GST fact one report in the West Australian revealed
that Western Australia had lost almost a third of the GST collected since the
inception of the GST in 2000 in other words one-third or thirty billion
dollars taken out of Western Australia and redistributed to other states as we
saw that share of the GST declined below 70 cents below fifty cents and down to
that embarrassing just over 30 cents now 30 billion dollars taken out of Western
Australia is is a huge sum 30 billion dollars Western Australia could have
purchased the entirety of Caltex Australia seek limited coca-cola amatul
and still have had change to buy Domino's Pizza although I don't think
there's much of an argument that I can make in this place to have any
government state or federal in the pizza delivery business but nonetheless there
is know no doubt there is a need to redistribute some money to other states
to accommodate for the different challenges that different states face at
different points in the economic cycle however no one ever expected that we
would get to this point of unfairness indeed former prime minister and the
architect of the goods and services tax he proudly says it's one of his greatest
achievements but former Prime Minister John Howard said that it was never going
to be necessary for top-up payments of the GST okay when he announced the goods
and services tax mr. Howard said quote for as long as any
of you can remember one of the least ignoble in characteristics of government
in this country has been the annual begging bowl pilgrimage to Canberra by
the states well Deputy Speaker the system that was
created by the introduction of the goods and services tax led to exactly that on
a grand scale led to my state of Western Australia having to beg for top-up
payments just to make sure they could keep the essential services of the state
running it's not good enough it's not it's not been good for any part of our
Commonwealth to see that be part of our distribution of funds across our states
and territories I mean follow on from the members of O'Connor and I commend
former Prime Minister Turnbull for his work on this package
Mr Turnbull had a cooperative approach he recognized that when Western
Australians voted for the Mark McGowan labor government that they were sending a
message all the way to Canberra they are sending a message that we needed to
address this problem it was the number one issue on the minds of many Western
Australians when they thought about what what what did fairness from a federal
government mean to them but Prime Minister Turnbull was listening to
Premier McGowan and I'm it pleased that with the passage of this legislation
we'll see him and treasurer Ben Wyatt begin to return the state's budget to a
surplus position and begin to repay debt but you can't spend all these funds just
on repaying debt you have to build for the future
you have to invest in the future there are many projects in Western Australia
that may be able to get off the ground because Western Australia now has a
stronger budget position and can think about what else might be needed to grow
the Western Australian economy one would be the investing in a light rail system
across our city through my election of perth connecting places like Curtin
University the Burswood Peninsula Elizabeth Quay all the way up to Kings
Park a beautiful tourist attraction and on to the medical precinct and
University of Western Australia this may also allow the state government and
their body the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority to finally fix
the eyesore and the disgrace that is the rotting of the East Perth power station
and turn it into a national tourist icon possibly full of art culture music or a
museum of national significance we could also invest and reinvest in our
community at a local level I don't know that other members will be
speaking on a range of things that we can invest in including community sport
and community infrastructure whatever the case when we get to the point of
looking at how the nation has got to this point of debating this legislation
you have to accept that it's only because labor has led this debate time
and time again that we've got the legislation that we do in front of us
today indeed was the opposition leader and labor which first proposed
significant and serious top-up payments to lift Western Australia's share of the
distribution of the goods and services tax indeed it was on Saturday the 26th
of August 2017 when opposition leader Bill Shorten announced the Shorten
labor government would invest 1.6 billion dollars in a fair share for WA
fund that was carefully considered policy aimed at making sure that we've
delivered a fair share for WA without making any state worse off it was the
first time we saw a concrete proposal to deliver an effective floor of GST for
Western Australia delivering a 70 cent floor it was then at my campaign launch
in July of this year Deputy Speaker but the opposition leader said we should
make the floor the law and that was a great initiative to say if you're going
to have a floor on the GST you have to legislate it it's the only way that you
have certainty to the state that in fairness had some pretty good reasons
for not trusting that they were going to get a fair share from Canberra what the
opposition leader said and I quote we also have a plan for the GST we have a
plan which labor has led working with the McGowan government and label
nationally to establish a floor and what we say today is that not only do we
support there being a 75 cent floor we want to turn the floor into the law end
quote it was a promise that was a eventually
adopted by the government and it was good that the government listened to the
opposition leader and an agreed to legislate it was also the opposition
leader and the shadow treasurer who said that
we must legislate to make sure that no state is worse off and I'm joined by a
number of colleagues from Tasmania who rightly have seen what happened to
Western Australia they've seen this state have its a budget smashed by an
unfair distribution of the GST and said well what happened in West Australia is
pretty bad it would be a terrible of in fixing one state's problem we were to
start smashing another state's budget and one of the things that I commenced
my Tasmanian colleagues for is actually looking to the future what
former prime minister howard and then treasurer in western australia then
later premier Colin Barnett failed to do was look to the long-term effect you
could see that there was a huge mining boom on the way the distribution formula
was already on paper but no I actually thought what happens in different
economic circumstances and so I commend my Tasmanian colleagues for
actually thinking through the implications of what we do and again I
commend the shadow treasurer for making sure that we've looked at this
legislation called for a no state worse-off guarantee and credit to the
current prime minister and credit to the current treasurer they've listened and
they've enacted that in the legislation before us today there are of course
other tax policies that the current prime minister and current treasurer may
wish to look at in developing a fair economy for all Australians one is
Labor's tax refund for working Australians Labor's policy will deliver
a bigger fairer tax cut for 10 million working Australians labor has proposed
reforms to dividend imputation ensuring that we deliver billions of dollars back
to the bottom line of the budget and remove excess cash refunds from dividend
imputation credits reform to capital gains tax and negative gearing limiting
where you can claim those negative gearing amounts and reducing the
discounts to ensure our tax system is fair and equitable and probably most
importantly when it comes to make sure we get a fair share of tax here in
Australia for all Australians a comprehensive package on multinational
tax avoidance which will improve the budget bottom line by three billion
dollars over the decade in addition labor will restore integrity to
Australia's tax system and stop Australian profits being stashed away in
tax havens labor will cap the deductions for managing tax affairs at $3,000 and
reforms to discretionary trust reforms I've mentioned before the need to look
to the future and look into the long term about making sure that such errors
of what happened don't happen again but I've also got to mention that the member
for Pearce the current Attorney General also must take some responsibility for
his role in failing to act and campaign hard enough for a fair share of the GST
when this problem emerged in 2011 2012 the new Attorney
General said when he was treasurer of Western Australia quote we reasonably
anticipate that in 2013-14 the Commonwealth's Grants Commission
will have brought in a new GST system well Deputy Speaker that did not happen
it took many years it took strong advocacy from my colleagues in the
labor party strong advocacy from the shadow treasurer strong advocacy from
premier Mark McGowan strong advocacy from WA treasurer Ben Wyatt and creative
policy to ensure WA gets a fair share of the goods and services tax thank you I
thank the member for Perth
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