Senator COOK (4:25 PM) —On that last point in this debate on the A New Tax System (Commonwealth-State Financial Arrangements) Bill 1999 , the government has told everyone what it believes the savings to local government will be, but it will not say what the costs to local government will be. Therefore no-one knows what the net benefit or cost will be.

Senator Brown —It will be a cost.

Senator COOK —Yes, you are right, Senator Brown: it will be a cost. We have this one-sided promotion saying that it is all savings, but of course there are clearly costs. We dealt with the GST legislation some months ago and now we are back here amending it. My first question to the minister is this: can the minister say whether these amendments will involve the government in changing its advertising on the new tax system that is now currently being pushed at the Australian people? I notice on TV that we have advertisements about the new tax system. Do these amendments involve any change to the advertising message?

Senator Robert Ray —They are not properly authorised, either.

Senator COOK —The second question I ask is: given that that advertising is allegedly about the new tax system, why do the words `GST' never appear in the advertisements? The words `GST' do not appear in the advertisements, yet they are about a tax system that involves a GST. Does that represent some sort of government attempt to manage the information flow? I thought that the ads were authorised by the minister who is now, seemingly, leaving the table, but if they are not properly authorised, what does the government intend to do about these ads? Are they going to authorise them in the proper manner or not?