Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to make it clear at the outset that the Labor Party supports the principle of having a zero threshold for the GST for imports. We support that on a number of ground. We support it on the grounds that Australia's businesses, particularly small businesses, deserve a level playing field—competitive neutrality. They are competing now with businesses from around the world and, if they have to charge GST on their goods and businesses they are competing with do not, that is a competitive disadvantage for Australian businesses and it should be dealt with. I support it on the grounds of revenue for the states. Of course, GST revenue goes to the states and states' budgets are constrained, so it makes sense that we look at ways such as this to improve the fiscal outcome for the states. Frankly and simply I would put it this way: if John Howard and Peter Costello had the information that we have today—and this is no criticism of them in the slightest—they would have applied the threshold for the GST at zero. They did not foresee and nor could they have been expected to have foreseen the rise of internet commerce and the rise in the ease with which Australian consumers can import goods from overseas. For all those reasons, the principle of a zero threshold for GST to apply to imports is a good one, and one that this side of the House supports.

However, this government has utterly mismanaged the implementation of this reform. We sometimes get lectured that there should be more bipartisanship. Here is an example where the Labor Party has offered bipartisan support to the government and this Treasurer has managed to completely bungle the implementation of the GST threshold, for reasons I will outline during this contribution. In the time I have available tonight, and tomorrow when the debate resumes, I will outline the proposal that the Labor Party puts to the parliament, and most particularly will put in the other place. In the other place we will see a more sensible outcome and there will be time for the government's mismanagement of this issue to be properly examined and for a sensible way to be implemented to give Australia's small businesses a more-level playing field.

This issue has been debated and discussed for some time. It is a measure from the 2016 budget—not the 2017 budget but the 2016 budget. Yet, here we are debating it today—even if it was the best bill in the world, even if it was a perfect reform and one that everybody was happy with, even if it was presented to the House in a way that was implementable, it is coming into force on 1 July this year. And here we are in June, so the government is allowing no time for businesses to adjust and to allow the systems to be put in place to see this rather significant change to be implemented. For those reasons alone, putting aside the problems with the implementation model, this legislation is deeply flawed.

In addition, this is a vendor registration model. This is one in which the government has chosen that overseas suppliers, including electronic platforms such as eBay, Amazon and et cetera, and re-deliverers of services, with an Australian turnover of $75,000 or more within a 12-month period, will be required to register for and charge GST.

In fact, I think it would be fair to say that there is a wide degree of in-principle support from the entire parliament—although I cannot speak for other parties. For the reasons I have outlined, I think there is a widely held recognition that this is a necessary reform. But Labor did have concerns about the implementation, and accordingly we referred this to a Senate committee, which has already done its work. I want to commend in particular Labor senator Chris Ketter for going through the government's proposals, which fell apart before that Senate committee and before Senator Ketter's questioning.

Firstly, on the matter of compliance, we are told—and I agree—