Page 2168 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 21 June 2011
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MR SPEAKER: Ms Gallagher!
MR SESELJA: We have a piece of legislation being put forward here by the Chief Minister—
Mr Barr: It is better than following the trail of brown paper bags, Mrs Dunne.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Barr!
MR SESELJA: This is exactly it. Mr Barr refers to brown paper bags. That is what this is a recipe for—brown paper bags. He said it. Mr Barr said it.
Ms Gallagher: Except it comes to the Assembly.
MR SPEAKER: Order, members!
MR SESELJA: “Follow the trail of brown paper bags.” Mr Speaker, it is very difficult to hear myself; so I will have to speak louder to get over them. The brown paper bags—Mr Barr has touched on it. We heard about how he is going to take the politics out of planning. This is politics in planning, Wollongong style. That is what this is about. If you lobby well enough, you will not have to pay the tax. It is a recognition that the scheme is flawed. Why is it that the Chief Minister—
Ms Gallagher: That is absolute rubbish, Zed, absolute rubbish, and you know it.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Gallagher, please!
MR SESELJA: Why is it that the Chief Minister today, in referring to this tax, straight away referred to the remission? She barely referred to the tax. She pointed to the remissions. If you need to lead with the remissions, perhaps it suggests that the taxes are all wrong. If you need to focus on how many people are not going to pay the tax or how they are not going to pay it for a couple of years, maybe you have got it wrong. But when it comes to these issues—and this is the other part of the legislation touched on by the scrutiny of bills committee—the scrutiny of bills committee talks about this power to give the Treasurer this absolute right to determine a tax. It gives the Treasurer that ability. And this is a recipe for “he who screams the loudest won’t pay the tax” or “he who lobbies the best won’t pay the tax”. Everyone else will pay the tax.
Ms Gallagher: What a load of rubbish. Yeah, right!
MR SESELJA: That is exactly what this legislation does. She interjects “Yeah, right.” I look forward to her getting up and giving us a substantial reason why it cannot happen. And when we put it, we saw the sensitivity in the briefing from her office. Her office tried to rewrite history in that briefing. When the public servants told us that this is what happened, her office tried to say, “That’s not the case.” And when we pushed the public servants again, they could not deny the fact that it gives the Treasurer this power. It is an absolute recipe for corruption, because it is
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