Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) and (2) together:

(1) Schedule 1, item 14, page 15 (cell at table item 6, column 2), omit "2019", substitute "2018".

(2) Schedule 1, item 15, page 16 (lines 22 to 33), omit subitem (3), substitute:

  Statements

(3) Despite subsection 396-105(6) in Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953, to the extent that a statement under subsection 396-105(2) in that Schedule for 2017 relates to an account that is a Lower Value Account (within the meaning of the CRS), the statement must be given to the Commissioner no later than 31 July 2019.

Note: Section 388-55 in that Schedule allows the Commissioner to defer the time for giving an approved form.

It is a sad day for this House when the assistant minister—who has now been in this place for nearly a decade—gets confused as to the periods in the debate when one moves a second reading amendment and when one moves a detailed amendment. As a member of nine years standing ought to know, the time for moving a detailed amendment is now, and I am now doing so.

This detailed amendment—moved at the proper time, Assistant Minister—is not a controversial one. It simply suggests that Australia's timetable for implementing the Common Reporting Standard should be the same as those of the 40 countries that are moving to implement corporate reporting in 2018. That would bring corporate reporting into line with the reporting for high-income individuals. It is not a controversial amendment. It should be supported by any government worth its salt. Any government that is interested in taking multinational tax avoidance seriously ought to be willing to move on the Common Reporting Standard in line with other countries.

I foreshadowed this amendment, in my second reading debate speech, earlier. It is a very straightforward amendment, one which simply changes the date in a bill. It does so to ensure that Australia is not a laggard when it comes to dealing with multinational tax avoidance. Multinational tax avoidance, sadly, is a problem that the government likes to blow a lot of hot air about but is unable to act upon.

Here is a test. Just as last year we had a test on the final day of parliament, when Labor made absolutely clear that we were supporting the government's multinational tax avoidance bill despite the fact that that bill was completely uncosted—had asterisks in the budget where the revenue measures were but we always said we would support it—we simply said we believed in transparency as well. Sadly, the Greens and the Liberals did not believe in transparency.

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