Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Minister for Finance and Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:11): As my very good friend and valued colleague Senator Colbeck very eloquently pointed out in his answer to questions by Senator Wong, there is no proposal to increase the rate or broaden the base of the GST. There is no proposal. What the government is doing is: we are focused, as we have been for some time, on policies to strengthen growth and create more jobs. Of course, as part of our dedicated and committed focus on stronger growth and more jobs, we are focusing on how the tax system can be further improved. We want to ensure that we have a growth-friendly tax system. That is why we got rid of the mining tax and the carbon tax. That is why we reduced company taxes for small business. That is why we decided not to proceed with Labor's bank tax. And that is why we are now having a look at how the tax mix in Australia can be improved so that we can facilitate stronger growth and the creation of more and better jobs. I know that the Labor Party is obsessed with trying to get ahead of the process. We understand that Labor had a terrible track record when it came to tax reform. They asked Ken Henry to chair a committee behind closed doors, called the Henry tax review. They received the report— The PRESIDENT: Order, Minister! Pause the clock. A point of order, Senator Moore? Senator Moore: Mr President, it is on direct relevance to the particular question, which is about a comment by Mr Wolfe, just asking whether five per cent would have this burden on the industry. It was not anything about the government's policy. It was specifically about Mr Wolfe's comment. The PRESIDENT: The minister probably negated the question by saying that there was no proposal to have that five per cent increase. The minister is aware of the question. Minister, you have the call. Senator CORMANN: Thank you very much, Mr President. You are indeed right: the premise of the question was completely false and, as such, I am now just contrasting our approach of engaging in an open-minded and transparent consultation and a conversation with the Australian people and with the states and territories about how our tax system can be improved. This is how Labor approached tax reform: they got Ken Henry to sit behind closed doors and write a report; they received it; they sat on it; and then they tabled it at the same time as whacking a great big new tax on an important industry, spending all the money before they had raised a zack, hitting for six an industry that was already facing enough challenges. That is Labor's way. That is not the way we are doing it. (Time expired)