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

I move:

That all the words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

'whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes that the Government's return to surplus—already at risk by the abandonment of fiscal rules—is premised on an accounting change in the timing of the imposition of tobacco excise'.

Labor will be supporting these bills which, in the main, put in place sensible, uncontroversial changes aimed at cracking down on the black economy. Schedule 1 to the black economy bill denies an income tax deduction for certain payments if the associated withholding obligations haven't been complied with. To give honourable members an example of that, currently it is possible to claim as a deduction withholding payments such as pay-as-you-go earnings, even if the required withholding obligation hasn't been met. Changing the rules around that will provide a greater incentive for employers and entities engaging contractors to comply with their withholding obligations, and that measure will have a positive but unquantifiable gain to revenue. It is a recommendation from the Black Economy Taskforce's final report.

Schedule 2 to the black economy bill requires entities providing road freight, IT or security, investigation or surveillance services that have an ABN to report to the tax office information about transactions that involve engaging other entities to undertake those services for them. That's an expansion of the taxable payment reporting system introduced by the former Labor government for the construction sector and expanded with Labor's support to the courier and cleaning services. That measure is projected to increase revenue by some $605.8 million over the forward estimates, and it too was a recommendation of the Black Economy Taskforce's final report.

The two bills also amend the excise acts to establish a framework to make excise duty on tobacco due and payable at the time of manufacture. It's an issue that was touched upon in debate earlier today in a customs tariff bill, which deals with parallel issues relating to the implementation of this change. As my colleague the member for Blair pointed out, the change in timing is ostensibly to reduce the importation of illicit tobacco. But, just coincidentally, in a 'Oh, my goodness; is that you, Deirdre Chambers?' kind of moment, the measure moves $3.27 billion into tax year 2019-20. That's because the change is to tax tobacco 12 weeks earlier, upon its entry into Australia, rather than when it leaves the warehouse.

This is really an advertising trick, pretty much what you'd expect from a government led by a former advertising executive, albeit one who was fired by the Howard government—

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