Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank those members who have contributed to this debate. The Treasury Legislation Amendment (Repeal Day) Bill 2014 forms part of our government's commitment to repeal counterproductive and redundant legislation and regulations. This bill amends various laws relating to taxation, superannuation and shareholdings in certain financial sector companies to implement a range of improvements to Australia's laws.

Schedule 1 of this bill amends the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 to repeal the payslip reporting provisions. The payslip reporting provisions in Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 require employers to include in employee payslips information prescribed by the regulations. If employers were required to report actual contributions on payslips they would need to invest in major upgrades in their software, and the benefit would likely be only marginal. Removing these provisions will reduce unnecessary duplication in the law and provide certainty to employers. Schedule 2 of this bill simplifies the taxation laws by consolidating duplicated taxation administration provisions contained in various taxation acts into a single set of provisions in the Taxation Administration Act 1953. Schedule 2 of this bill also repeals spent or redundant taxation laws and moves longstanding regulations into primary law.

Tidying up our tax laws is an important part of the care and maintenance of our tax system. Schedule 3 of the bill amends the Financial Sector (Shareholdings) Act 1998 so that persons who do not hold a direct control interest in a financial sector company will no longer be deemed to have a stake in the financial sector company as a consequence of their associates direct control interests. Currently, the law requires that associates of a person who is seeking a shareholding in excess of 15 per cent also seek approval for the shareholding. This is required irrespective of whether an associate has any actual shareholding or financial interest in the company in which the new shareholding is sought. These associates are caught by the wide definition of 'associate' in the Financial Sector (Shareholdings) Act 1998, which requires them to undertake this action for no real policy benefit. With the changes in this bill, associates with no direct interest in the company will no longer be required to seek approval and will no longer be caught in a technical trap that requires them to hold approval under the Financial Sector (Shareholdings) Act 1998.

Schedule 4 of this bill addresses the fact that currently the definition of 'Australia' for taxation purposes is complex, overly detailed and expressed differently in different parts of the taxation laws, despite the fact that the laws are intended to achieve a simple and largely equivalent result. Schedule 4 rewrites the definition of 'Australia' into a single location in the tax law, for use across all the tax laws, in a simple and coherent form.

Progressively removing individual pieces of unnecessary red tape and regulation and making our law simpler and shorter plays an important role in helping Australia's economy become more efficient. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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