Ms JANN McFARLANE (4:31 PM) —I stand here today to raise concerns that the GST package will have a negative effect on services—particularly health, charity, housing and community services. The government's GST package will also reduce the standard of living of low income Australian families.

On this side of the House, and out in the Australian community, people are asking why the government does not take a mature approach to this issue and rethink its GST package. It is not too late. If the government continues its push to impose the GST package on the Australian community, it must heed the serious concerns that are being raised about the inadequacies of the compensation component. These concerns are being raised with me on a daily basis by people, family groups and businesses in the Stirling electorate as well as by a broader range of groups and organisations. Individuals, families, businesses and organisations from across Australia have for some time now been telling the government of their concerns. Many have taken advantage of the opportunity offered by the Senate Community Affairs References Committee to send submissions or make a public appearance to air their views and concerns.

The Labor Party and Australian Democrats senators involved in the Senate Community Affairs References Committee have expressed these views and concerns in their report on the GST and a new tax system: The lucky country goes begging. I quote from the report:

The Committee considers that the government's tax package is unfair, complex, confusing, and significantly flawed in many crucial areas.

The overwhelming majority of evidence from across the whole health and welfare sector was highly critical of the impact of the package on the living standards of Australians. The GST will disproportionately hurt low and middle income Australians and the compensation is inadequate and vulnerable to future government budget cuts.

The Committee considers that the tax package will divide the community and entrench that division. Australians will become the `haves' and the `have-nots'. High-income earners will have generous tax cuts and low-income households will have paltry compensation.

The tax cuts and pension increases offered in compensation are skewed towards high-income earners. The Government's own figures illustrate this. For a single person on $20,000 the benefit is 1.3 per cent or $4.28 per week, while for a single person on $75,000 the benefit is 7.3 per cent or $68.55 per week. A single pensioner will get just $2.89 a week out of the package while a pensioner couple gets just $4.81. Just enough for a packet of cereal!

The compensation package assumes that the GST will raise prices by 1.9 per cent. Treasury's own testimony was that in the first year the effect would be 3.1 per cent.

Page 17 of the report states:

The St Vincent de Paul Society took their own survey of families and concluded that the adverse price impact from the GST package might be as much as five times that estimated by Treasury (9.5% instead of 1.9%).

I will seek to table the examples given by the St Vincent de Paul Society showing the negative impact the government's GST package will have on low income families and demonstrating why its compensation measures are so inadequate.

And what about the personal assurance from the Prime Minister to Senator Brian Harradine that `the government would restructure the tax system to benefit families'? This is out of Senator Brian Harradine's press release of 5 March 1998. As a result of this assurance, Senator Brian Harradine decided not to block the passage of the common youth allowance bill because he believed the Prime Minister. He believed that when the Prime Minister promised that the government would `give further recognition and help to Australian parents concerning their responsibilities in raising sons and daughters' the Prime Minister would keep his word. With the report The lucky country goes begging dramatically highlighting the inadequacies of the GST package and its compensation measures, I wonder how Senator Harradine now views the Prime Minister's promise that the restructure would benefit Australian families.

It is a fact that the government cannot point to one family compensation measure that families with an unemployed 17- to 21-year-old would qualify for in the GST package. It is now clear that when the government gave its commitment to Senator Harradine that the GST tax package would give further recognition to help Australian parents raise their sons and daughters it did not include young unemployed people. Mr Howard should explain to the parents of Australia just why their young unemployed children—they are really adults—do not count as a son or daughter in the eyes of his government. I ask the government to look at the benefits of Labor's tax credit scheme. Mr Deputy Speaker, I now seek leave to table examples from Labor's policy document which demonstrates the way the tax credit system would benefit families. It is a table.

Leave not granted.

Ms JANN McFARLANE —Labor's tax credit system can effectively deliver families $5,000 more without a GST. It is a shame that the coalition is not interested in informing itself of the benefits of other schemes instead of being so fixated on the GST package and bullying ahead. The government must put political difference aside and make the mature and responsible decision to rethink its GST package for the sake of Australian families and so that the lucky country does not go begging.

I have some young people in my family aged 18 to 21, and their friends are coming to me because of the stress caused to them and their families as they are not eligible for an unemployment benefit or Austudy up to the age of 24 because of the government's policies. One of the concerns raised with me by constituents and when I have been out in public forums is about why young people wear black clothing. Young people will explain to you that one of the reasons why they wear black clothing is that they feel depressed and miserable about their future prospects in this society and that it is a cultural expression of how they feel about themselves, their families, their `fit' with government policies, and their not being valued, particularly by the coalition government—not just at the federal level but in Western Australia as it also has a state coalition government. A further sign of these feelings about themselves and how young people express them—and it has been raised on both sides of this House—is the rising rate of youth suicide, self-harm, drug abuse and other problems experienced by young people.

To me it will be a happy day when the government does not push its GST bills through this parliament. Young people can take perhaps some joy from their life and living because they will feel they will have a future and will be valued with policies that are better thought out and better targeted to people and their needs. Young people are not the only group who have come to me with their concerns or who have spoken to me at forums. People from the aged care sector, people with disabilities, people from the child-care sector, people from the charitable sector, public housing tenants and local government associations have raised their concerns that not only do they feel the GST package will not bring any significant benefits to them but also any compensation packages are not targeted at them or in the short term will be eroded very quickly and they will be worse off than before. Many people have expressed to me their interest in the different kind of tax reform progressed by the Labor Party; tax reform that is more incremental, more targeted and more thoughtful of its impact on people in every area of their lives. If the government goes ahead with this, I do not think it will be the government after the next election.

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER —Order! The honourable member for Stirling on two occasions sought to table some papers. We dealt with the second one. On the first occasion she wished to table an extract from The lucky country goes begging . Is the honourable member seeking leave to have that document tabled?

Ms Jann McFarlane —Yes.

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER —Is leave granted?

Mr Bruce Scott —Leave is not granted.

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER —The discussion has concluded. The honourable member for Chifley approached the chair and wishes to add to some remarks earlier in the day on indulgence. I will grant that indulgence.