Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his very good question, because this government has an impressive record of tax reform. The first reform recommended by the tax review was for a resource rent tax, which has now passed this House and is up in the Senate. It is a very important tax because it gives us a revenue stream which enables us to implement some of the other recommendations of the tax review, including a very substantial tax cut for small business.

The member asked what the future for tax reform is in terms of all of those measures that we have already implemented that have been recommended by Henry. We had a very good forum in this parliament at the end of last year. And when it comes to business taxation, for example, we currently have a business taxation reform group which is working on a number of issues, which I am sure all members will be very interested in because we need to take into account the patchwork nature of our economy and that there are some businesses out there doing it tough, particularly when it comes to the non-resource sector.

I expect to receive that report from that group sometime in the next month or so. In the context of that, the government will be considering a range of measures for possible inclusion in a future budget and responding to the agenda that has been put down by the members. So we are working our way through a range of issues. I take the motion seriously. We have a substantial record of tax reform, both personal tax and business tax, and we do intend to progress that over the months ahead.

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