Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak on the Tax Laws Amendment (Temporary Flood Reconstruction Levy) Bill 2011 and related bill, because there are some local implications for my electorate and I want to reveal to the House the feedback from my electorate. I have great admiration for the member for Canberra, who spoke previously, but I wish to comment on the Orwellian speak that the others are using on this issue about a ‘temporary’ levy—the same as their ‘temporary’ budget deficit. There is nothing temporary about this. The history of these sorts of levies is that they continue and that they will be morphed into something else at some time in the future.

What we are dealing with here is one of the worst governments ever in Australia’s history to be in this House. It is probably not quite as bad as the Whitlam government, but it is a mess. When I outline some examples in my speech you will see how this government is mismanaging this economy and why this levy is turning into a mess for this government. The problem is that the government does not know how many people are involved. It is drunk on taxes. As a Western Australian I object to the fact that this year this government wants to impose a carbon tax—when Julie Gillard said before the election that she would not have a tax—and it wants to impose a mining tax on Western Australia, and now we have got another tax.

I have constituents contacting me about this. Steven Pin, from my electorate, from Buckingham Road in Kelmscott—where houses were burnt down—rang about the Queensland levy. Mr Pin’s home was badly affected by the Kelmscott fires and is facing huge costs to rebuild parts of his house et cetera. He feels that he should not have to pay the levy. Michael King, from Mount Richon, said: ‘I really don’t support this levy.’ Dave Gossage says: ‘As a volunteer firefighter, I have an issue with being taxed again by this government.’ I could go on and on but, because of time constraints, I will limit it. At the end of the day, this is a bad tax.

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