State Major Bank Levy

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (14:38): Supplementary, sir: can the minister categorically rule out that his big bad new tax will not affect the pockets of mums and dads, pensioners, farmers, small business people and young people trying to buy a car and get ahead? Can you categorically guarantee it—yes or no?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:39): I thank the honourable member, the honourable member who in his little amount of time as a minister, going back a decade or two, introduced the emergency services levy. So, he knows all about taxing people.

The big banks made about $30 billion profit in the past year—$30 billion profit. A tax of less than one-third of 1 per cent can easily be absorbed in their profits, and considering the fact that we have heard a number of times already today that they are undertaxed to the tune of $4 billion, they can well afford these levies out of their taxes, just as was talked about when the commonwealth introduced the same measure. The Hon. Robert Brokenshire fell completely in line at the time with that.