Senator BROWN (4:37 PM) —In that case, why do we have the draconian need for this law, which is going to have state and territory governments withhold revenues from local governments that are not keeping up their GST payments? Why not simply take the particular local government to court the same as everybody else? Senator Ray used the term `faith'. I do not see any faith in local government being expressed by the government here at all. They are saying, `We're going to have you over the rack as far as GST is concerned,' and the implication is that this is going to have a very negative impact on local government.

It is simply an affront to this chamber that Senator Ellison and Senator Kemp are getting up and making these blandishments but are unable to provide to this chamber or are unwilling to give—because I believe the government has it—to this chamber the information that local government should have about the dollars and cents that are going to be diverted out of local government revenues into the tax office through this GST package. The government cannot give that in dollars and cents or in percentage terms.