Senator TCHEN (3:10 PM) —The people of Australia first heard the concept of a goods and services tax more than 10 years ago from someone whom the Labor Party no longer mentions in public. They no longer remember him except in the context of Indonesia or a livestock industry. However, he was rolled by his own colleagues who could not understand the importance of an up-to-date taxation system for Australia.

In 1993, the Liberal Party took up this task and introduced a new system of taxation to the Australian electors. But because of the way politics work, the persons who used to support taxation reform turned around and caused enough damage so that the idea was lost in 1993. However, in 1998, the Liberal-National Party coalition, with courage which is unusual in politics—certainly on the other side of politics—brought the matter back in front of the Australian people and, having thought about this matter over six years, the people of Australia gave the coalition parties the mandate in the 1998 election to bring in a new taxation system for Australia.

After the election, the legislation was passed by the Senate after considerable debate and with the support of the Australian Democrats who, although they are not in the habit of recognising majority mandates, on this occasion recognised the benefit of a new taxation system to Australia and had the legislation passed.

This occurred last June. Why is it that, after nearly six months, the GST is back on the agenda again as far as the opposition is concerned? For the last two weeks at question time we have heard nothing from Labor Party senators except on GST and on the very minor point of GST and charity. This is a very strange occurrence; most people would not understand it. Perhaps the reason is not all that strange. I refer senators to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday with the heading `Surfer Beazley on wave of optimism'. The opening statement says:

The Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, yesterday painted a picture of Labor riding to office on a policy surfboard creating the GST wave.

That explains why suddenly, instead of, as an opposition party should, presenting alternative policies to what the government has come up with, the Labor Party are simply just nitpicking on minor points, particularly on points which cause concerns for the most vulnerable in our communities, the people who provide charity to the less fortunate. Instead of presenting a viable alternative to Australia, all they want to do is simply create enough wave to enable them to surf through the next election. This is not going to work, of course, because they are going to get dumped by the wave.

The reality is, looking at opposition senators over the last two weeks during question time, that they were clearly embarrassed by this approach. They are clearly confused by this situation. The Australian public is getting used to the sight of the opposition leader standing in front of the public, with his considerable bulk, oozing with all the sincerity that he can summons. Opposition senators are not as good at this. We can see they are embarrassed by this because they are trying to create a wave, as it were, in a policy vacuum. (Time expired)