Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-07-05 Daily Xml

Contents

State Major Bank Levy

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:23): Supplementary: can the minister explain how taxing on the one hand leads to jobs growth and, potentially, what universities teach that sort of logic, apart from the London School of Economics?

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) (14:23): I am happy to explain it for the honourable member, and I don't think you need to do a couple of years of financial accounting at uni to understand this. What happens is there are revenue measures. You bring tax in through a range of measures and then you apply it to things like programs to create jobs, and you apply it to things like your schools and hospitals. What you do is you have revenue measures.

Just so the honourable member clearly understands: you don't just have spending measures. You need the other side; you need revenue measures as well. You need revenue measures and spending measures. You have measures that create revenue like a levy on the banks, which are undertaxed (according to the federal Liberal government) to the tune of $4 billion, and you have revenue measures that bring in revenue and then you put it towards spending measures like job creation programs. It is pretty simple and that's how it works. I am happy to see if a briefing can be arranged for the honourable member on basic revenue and spending and just how that works.