"Scandalous falsehoods" is pretty spicy language for a dry debate over tax bills, but that’s exactly the term used by Member for the Southern Downs, James Lister, in state parliament last week. Mr Lister told his colleagues that he was looking forward to contributing to the debate on the revenue Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 so that he could rebut “some of the scandalous falsehoods that I have heard emanating” from the opposition side of the bench.
The Revenue Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 was up for debate. It is an exceedingly long document involving changes to various tax income streams in Queensland, including revoking what Mr Lister calls a ‘GP tax’.
Mr Lister first accused the Member for Bancroft, Christopher Whiting, of “flagrantly” denying there was “ever such a thing as a GP tax” when his party argued last term that the measures were “essential”.
Furthermore, the former treasurer made “no attempt to balance the ledger better and stop wasting money,” Lister accused the opposition, providing some salty examples.
“I thought of the $300 million spent on ‘wastecamp’, the Wellcamp facility which held almost nobody and then was handed back to the people who built it for them.”
Weight loss programs for dogs, to the tune of $100,000 was also mentioned.
“That was always an interesting one,” Mr Lister told his colleagues.
“The member’s speech does not contain much from the bill before the House,” Manager of Opposition Business MP Mick de Brenni complained to the Deputy Speaker. “I ask you to bring him back to the subject matter of the bill.”
“We are talking about taxes,” Mr Lister replied.
James Lister also complained of “billions and billions of dollars in blowouts” on Cross River Rail thanks, he said, to “poor contracting and management” and the “utterly corrupt association they had with thug unionists to extort more money from the people of Queensland.”
The GP tax, which this government intends to cut, certainly existed, despite some claims from the opposition.
“Who are they kidding by saying that this tax never existed? It is brazen and it means that the Labor opposition are still fatally disconnected from the word on the street.”
According to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, new laws have passed through the Queensland Parliament to permanently exempt the state's GPs from payroll taxes. The State Parliament's support is the final step in cementing the legal changes, which mean that wages paid by medical practices to GPs are exempt from the controversial tax
Queensland State Parliament resumed on February 18.
