Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It is not appropriate for me to comment on the commercial activities of the AWB or its taxation treatment. If those opposite really want the government to be interfering in what is quite rightly the independence of the taxation commissioner, then they should make that very clear. In reality that is what they are drawing into this debate. It is quite inappropriate and it is quite improper, and we reject it out of hand.

Can I assure the House tonight that any suggestion that the AWB has received or will receive favourable treatment from the tax office is clearly wrong. The tax office has in place a number of rigorous systems to ensure that taxpayers are treated equally under the law. The commissioner administers the law in our self-assessment tax system on the basis of risk management. Risks to the tax system are continually assessed by the ATO and published by the commissioner annually in his compliance program. Taxpayers are selected for audit or compliance action based on those processes.

I note the claims that the tax office has not done enough in this area, and some of those opposite would criticise the ATO for that. But I do not think anyone should ever accuse the tax office of a lack of commitment to collecting the right amount of tax. It is quite unfair that, as part of this debate, the Labor Party should try to run a political stunt in what is a very serious issue before the House tonight.

The government is committed to this bill. The government is very serious in trying to provide certainty to taxpayers in relation to tax laws, and it does not support the stunts put forward by the Labor Party. If we need any greater recognition of the Labor Party being all over the place on this issue we can turn to the comments by the final speaker in this debate, the member for Wills, who went to the point in relation to facilitation payments. He suggested, and the Hansard will show this—the Hansard should also record the smiling face of the member for Hunter, because he knows what I am going to say; he knows what the member for Wills said in this place only a few moments ago, in complete contradiction to the shadow minister—that the ALP should abolish facilitation payments.

That is in stark contrast to the words uttered by the member for Hunter earlier today. In this debate the Labor Party are divided on this issue. If anybody needs recognition of the fact that this is a political stunt, that the Labor Party have not got their act together and that they are each running in different directions, all they need to do is view in Hansard the comments of the member for Hunter, the member responsible in the Labor Party for this matter, and the comments made by the member for Wills. They really do expose that this is a political stunt. It is shameful for the Labor Party to be embarking on this course in such a serious matter. As part of that, I commend the bill to the House.

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