Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Still am? I wish I was! I was sitting in the HIA office in Brisbane with 30 or 40 other people and met a fellow by the name of Frank O'Neill. Frank's the kind of guy who will probably be listening to this right now as we speak. So if you are, Frank: Cheers, mate. You did a good job with me and many of my colleagues. You actually ignited my love of learning. So thank you for what you gave to me. But I digress.

It is very important to know that people, particularly in small business, come from various backgrounds and various levels of education. Sometimes in my industry, the building industry, particularly amongst the trades—it's certainly not exclusive to the trades—for many people school was not their greatest forte. Lunchtime was my favourite subject when I was at school, as you can tell! The opportunity to go and do these courses to become better bookkeepers and to become better managers of your business—like the one that I did when I was studying to become a builder—was very much welcome. It stood me in good stead, as it has done for hundreds of thousands of other contractors in Queensland, unlike in some other jurisdictions in this fine country, I hasten to add, which do not require you to complete these sorts of educational courses to become a builder. I think Queensland had it right when I was going through some 30 or 35-odd years ago.

I really do acknowledge and congratulate the drafting of schedule 1, which enables these sorts of education courses. Rather than fine someone, it says, 'Let's work with this individual and try and upskill them.' That's surely better than just pinging them with a fine.

Schedule 2 of the bill is also an important provision which provides for data matching for the ATO. It specifically does that in relation to ride sharing, ride sourcing and short-term accommodation platforms. This is really important. It's really just bringing those data-matching abilities into line with, once again, my old stomping ground—that's the building industry. It's interesting because last week, or it may have been the week before that, I called upon a local business called Advance Kitchens, in Caloundra in my electorate, and I spoke with Carol Langton. Carol rang me up and she was frothing at the mouth. She is very upset about how she has to be doing all this unpaid public service, as I ultimately called it. Small businesses have all these reporting requirements, particularly for subcontractors. After I had the opportunity to sit down with Carol and explain to her the importance of these anti-black-economy provisions that enable the ATO to data match information with their own material and the reporting of their own subcontractors, Carol, to her credit, could see the benefits of those requirements.

Whilst I was at the warehouse factory I had a good tour and saw the great work that Advance Kitchens in Caloundra are doing. I met some of the staff. I met an older gentleman who had been working there for decades. He was in his 70s. His granddaughter was working at the factory and was keeping it in the family. It is a terrific local business.

I come back to the point. Schedule 2 essentially just brings onto parity the reporting requirements for rideshare and gig economy platforms and much more traditional business, such as those in the building industry. Those data-matching requirements have been in place for a very long time. It's very important that we ensure that we have these provisions that are very tight in relation to the black economy. We want to make sure that businesses are paying their fair share of tax. I don't think anybody would quibble too much with that point.

Schedule 3 is a little less interesting, but it does amend the Income Tax Assessment Act and makes consequential amendments to the FBT act to remove the exclusion as a deductible expense the first $250 of expenses for prescribed courses of education. Having said that, once again it creates an added incentive for small businesses to provide educational courses to their staff. That is always a good thing. It doesn't matter whether it is a course in relation to IR, first aid or whatever it might be. There are FBT benefits for the first $250 of expenses for prescribed courses. It's a very good thing to provide those opportunities for additional learning for staff and to provide that economic incentive as well.

Schedule 4 of the bill is something that is relatively close to my heart. I've talked in this place often enough about being a builder and becoming a barrister. Schedule 4 allows small businesses to seek orders from the AAT that stay, or otherwise affect, ATO debt recovery actions whilst the small business is disputing the underlying tax assessment in the Small Business Taxation Division of the AAT. This is very much a commonsense provision. If a businessperson feels aggrieved by a decision of the ATO then that businessperson has every right to challenge the decision of the ATO in the AAT. If that person doesn't get a successful outcome there, they go onwards from there to the Federal Court et cetera. This provision stays the decision of the ATO until they get an outcome through the legal process. This shouldn't be seen as anything controversial. Simply, while someone is exercising their legal rights to have the decision challenged in the AAT, that decision should be stayed. It reminds me that a constituent of mine, who's been vociferous in his opposition—

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