Ms MACKLIN —My question is to the Prime Minister and follows the answer just given by the Treasurer. Is the Prime Minister aware of recent analysis released by the Australian Council of Social Service which shows that a 10 per cent GST which is used to fund tax cuts makes married pensioners $15 a week worse off, but wealthy couples $30 a week better off? Can the Prime Minister explain to pensioners how this is fair? Can the Prime Minister also explain to pensioners why he is so determined to hit them with yet further price rises after he has already added $4,380 to the cost of a nursing home bed?

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —My understanding of that particular piece of analysis assumes no compensation. While I am on my feet, might I remind the member for Jagajaga of another piece of analysis which was released last week by, I think, the Institute of Chartered Accountants that demonstrated that, under the taxation system that the Labor Party supports, a family on $30,000 a year is worse off than a family on $20,000 a year. I ask you, Mr Speaker, how can it be that any political party in this country can actually support a tax system where a family—same number, same circumstances—earning $30,000 a year is actually worse off than a family on $20,000 a year? Yet, that is the Beazley-Evans taxation system where the harder you work, the more you earn, the more you lose. That is the system that the Labor Party is supporting. I think those figures speak far more eloquently than the question asked by the member for Jagajaga.