CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks for coming everyone.
Scott Morrison must think and hope that the Australian people are mugs. Here we have a Treasurer, when Labor announced three months ago that we would take off the tampon tax and that we had found an alternative source of revenue for the states, called it a cynical exercise. He mocked the fact that Australias political parties should think that the GST should come off tampons. Scott Morrison must think that Australias women must have a very short memory. He has been the blockage to reform, he has been in the way of taking up sensible ideas to take the tax off tampons.
Now, two or three months ago, Labor had a clear proposal, a concrete policy announcement, not a thought bubble, to go to the States and not only saying that the tax should be removed from tampons and the revenue be made up elsewhere, and we had a proposal to do that.
What we see today is a repeat of 2015. Joe Hockey when he was Treasurer had a thought bubble; he said the tax should come off tampons, he said that he would ask the state premiers and treasurers to take it off. The state treasurers, led by NSW State Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian at the time, said no. They did not agree. Mr Hockey said oh, well, it is all too hard. Now Scott Morrison says he will do the same thing.
On June 18, Labor and other parties carried a motion in the Senate to take the tax of tampons. The Liberals voted against it and they only put up one speaker, Senator Stoker. One single speaker who said that this wasnt a big issue for the women of Australia and it was a cheap stunt to take the GST from tampons. That was the official was the approach of the Liberal Party in the Senate, just on 18 June this year.
Kelly O'Dwyer was out this morning say that the saying that the Liberal Party has been fighting hard to get this done. That is just not true. The Liberal Party have been missing in action and in fact weve had Liberal senators voting against the motion to take GST tampons, we have had Treasurer Hockey wiping his hands and saying it is all too hard. Weve had Scott Morrison, when he was asked why he would not go to the states and ask the GST to come off tampons he said we have already done that and they said no. He said I am only interested in things that can be done and today he has another thought bubble.
I hope that the states and territory treasurers do agree to take the tax off tampons. This is the reform that is beyond time and in fact the GST should never been put on tampons in 2000. The fact that the matter is that the Labor Party has, like in so many areas, led the debate, put up concrete policy, put up well-thought out alternatives, whereas Scott Morrison just engages in thought bubbles. This isnt even desperate catch-up, he has not even caught up with the Labor party. This is just an attempt to distract from the Government's political woes. A Treasurer who has been in witness protection program all week, who has failed to defend his signature corporate tax policy, his signature $80 billion company tax cut. He is trying to change the conversation with this thought bubble today and I think the people and the women of Australia are able to see right through this.
Happy to take any questions.
JOURNALIST: Mr Bowen, do you encourage the states and territories to support the Government?
BOWEN: Well, of course, we had every Labor state to agree with our policy proposal. Of course I would encourage states and territories to lift the GST on tampons. But the fact of the matter is that the states and territories are entitled to ask where will we make up the revenue?. Labor has a concrete plan to do so. What Mr Morrison has said is that the states should give up the revenue and agree. Let me make this point just one last time, Labor has not just spoken about it, we have gone to the states with an alternative proposals which is make just as much money to the States.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
BOWEN: We have always said that the way to axe the tampon tax is to come up with an alternative set of revenue. Now we said that when the Government put the GST on Netflix and similar products. We said that that was an opportunity to get rid of the GST off tampons. Weve said that there was an opportunity to do this by including GST on natural therapies and therapies that dont have a medical evidence base. Weve put up an alternative proposal. There have been many opportunities to get this done. I put out that Scott Morrison says hes getting on with it, well its been five years, five years theyve been in office. Theyve now discovered this issue when theyre in a high degree of political difficulty.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
BOWEN: Well we hope so. We saw the Treasurer of New South Wales, Treasurer Perrottet, say the GST should come off tampons. Thats a different position for the NSW Liberal Government on this issue. It was Gladys Berejiklian who vetoed this last time. This requires the unanimous agreement of the states. Gladys last time said no change. Now if the Liberal Government of NSW has changed its position, we need to wait and see if the Liberal State Governments of Tasmania and South Australia have changed their positions. South Australia, in fairness, is a new government. As Ive said, every Labor State Premier has signed on: Bill Shorten, Tanya Plibersek, Catherine King and I, asked them to sign on and they did. So Labor State Governments are already there. Its up to Scott Morrison to convince his Liberal colleagues.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
BOWEN: Well on banks and farmers, Scott Morrison was out there yesterday expecting a pat on the back, saying how bad the banks are. This is the man who stood in the way of the Royal Commission for years. For two years said that the Royal Commission was a stunt and wasnt necessary and now hes trying to pretend hes tough on banks. Now yesterday the Productivity Commission came out with a report that recommended abolishing trailing fees for mortgage brokers and a best interests duty. Now that is very similar to what Labor did in office with financial planners and the Liberal Party tried very hard to have that repealed, so I hope they will take this much more seriously.
Now in relation to farmers and rural areas in particular, of course it is incumbent on the banks to provide as much support as is necessary to farmers who are doing it tough. I welcome the announcements made by Andrew Thorburn at the National Australia Bank last week, about their change in approach. The Treasurer is also big noting himself, always huffing and puffing, he could have done something two years ago, backed a Royal Commission. The Royal Commission has been looking at the issues of rural finance and culture, and of course, we await the final recommendations (inaudible).
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
BOWEN: Joel Fitzgibbon has been pointing out the shortcomings of the Governments approach to drought and I point you to that for the details. The whole community has been responding to various appeals for relief which is fantastic but the Government has been found wanting when it comes to providing drought relief. Joel Fitzgibbon has been pointing out the errors the Government has made.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
BOWEN: Well as I said, the Liberal Party has been in office now for five years. We have always said that the time to fix this is when there have been revenue raising options on the table to replace the lost revenue. Now we called on Joe Hockey to do this when he put the GST on Netflix and digital products, which we supported, because it raised more money than you get from the GST on tampons, so the state dont lose out by the GST coming off tampons. Weve put forward out own proposal.
Scott Morrison this morning is a carbon copy of Joe Hockey in 2015, saying hes going to go to the State Premiers, and then if they say no, then theres nothing I can do.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
BOWEN: We announced a comprehensive policy on this only three months ago and at the time, Scott Morrison called it a cynical exercise. Now you develop these policies and then you announce them. I am proud of the fact that working with Tanya Plibersek and Catherine King and Bill Shorten, that we have announced a policy to deal with this. The Liberal Party has been in office for five years and done absolutely nothing about it. Theres been opportunities for them, weve also said the way to do it was to use other revenue raising measures, its been a consistent policy position for quite some time now. Weve found more ways of raising GST revenue and Scott Morrison has said no. Now hes simply engaging in cheap political posturing today.
