Page 1229 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2016
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Mr Smyth: So it is not a quote?
MR BARR: No, it is not a quote. The Prime Minister—
Mr Smyth: So you are now verballing the Prime Minister?
MR BARR: No, I am not verballing. I am not verballing the Prime Minister or the federal Treasurer. They have both indicated on the public record—
Mr Smyth: It is not a quote, you just said. What did they say?
MR BARR: They have both indicated on the public record countless times, including on the Insiders program, and from the quote that I gave at the beginning—
Mr Smyth: And you verballed them.
MR BARR: I am not verballing the Prime Minister. I am not—
Mr Smyth: You twisted it then. You did not say what—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, can you please be quiet.
MR BARR: I am not twisting anything, Madam Deputy Speaker. If anyone is twisting and turning, it is Mr Smyth, because he has been caught out with his policy pants around his ankles—his own federal leader, every credible economist in the world. And when he tries to call me on that, when he says, “No, please, there are in fact apparently economists who are operating intergalactically who would have a different opinion from every economist in the world, who would take that obvious—
Mr Smyth interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, I have asked you to be quiet. I will not ask again.
MR BARR: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Every single time this issue is debated in this place, Mr Smyth trots out the same old tired rhetoric. And every single time this debate advances in this country there is another senior federal Liberal politician, another think tank, another economist who condemns the position that is put forward by those opposite, who praises the reforms that are being undertaken here in the ACT and are now being progressed in South Australia as well.
These are important reforms for our city, important reforms for our country. That is why the Prime Minister made the point that he did at the beginning of the year, why he made the point he did at COAG last week, and why the federal Treasurer and others are on the record endorsing the reforms that are occurring here in the ACT.
That is why tax reform is important. It is the right public policy, with better outcomes for our economy and fairer, simpler and more efficient taxation. That surely is what we should all be striving for.
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