Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to speak to a slightly different piece of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Incentives and Integrity) Bill, if I could. With respect to the instant asset write-offs, I did want to draw the chamber's attention to the fact that I think, in many cases, this bill is being misused by some consumers, particularly with respect to the write-off of the luxury car tax discounts. Essentially the issue here is the issue regarding people using this tax law to write off utility vehicles when in many instances it's reasonable to conclude that the vehicles are actually being purchased for non-commercial purposes.

If we look at the cars bought in Australia in 2023, nearly a quarter of them were light utility vehicles or utes—that's 3.1 million vehicles purchased in that year. There are only 1.94 million tradies in Australia, so it's reasonable to assume that in many instances these vehicles are not being purchased for commercial purposes but, rather, are being used by individuals for non-commercial purposes. That being the case, it's not appropriate that the luxury car tax is giving these people a tax cut. It would make sense that we change this legislation such as to exclude those luxury utility vehicles from the commercial vehicle exemption. I've written to the Treasurer about this in the past but not yet received a response.

We know that tradies who are actually using their cars for work are unlikely to be adversely affected because of this, because the models of their choosing are below the luxury car tax threshold. I put that before the House and before the Assistant Treasurer, in terms of the fact that it's inappropriate for us to continue to give tax breaks to people who don't need them and shouldn't deserve them. We should be working as actively as we can to use taxpayers' money for good rather than giving tax breaks to people who buy enormous super utes.

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