Kevin Hogan Page, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House
3:00 pm
My question is to the Minister for Small Business. Thousands of hardworking small businesses across Australia, including in my electorate, operate through a trust structure. How many small businesses does the minister expect will pay more tax under Labor's new trust tax, and when was she notified of this tax increase?
Jim Chalmers Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer
I haven't got the call yet, genius!
Milton Dick Speaker
Order! The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order?
Dan Tehan Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction
The Treasurer should refer to members by their correct title.
Milton Dick Speaker
I agree. It's standing order 64. The manager is correct, and I do enforce correct titles. We don't need descriptors before anyone's name. We don't need anyone to come up with complimentary or uncomplimentary titles at all. We just keep straight to titles. The manager has raised that. We've reminded the House. Now the Treasurer has the call.
Jim Chalmers Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer
I withdraw describing the honourable member as a genius.
Dan Tehan Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction
Speaker, what the Treasurer just did is not helping the House at all.
Mr Tony Burke Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House
Mr Speaker, the minister was not directed to withdraw. He chose to withdraw. It's completely in order for him to do so, and we won't make that mistake again.
Milton Dick Speaker
Let's just get back to normal transition, and we'll just call everyone by their titles, and we'll just get back to question time. The Treasurer has the call.
Jim Chalmers Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer
3:02 pm
The reforms that will be introduced in the parliament tomorrow are all about better aligning the tax treatment of income from working with the tax treatment of income from assets. What we have done is we've picked up the concerns that have been raised for decades in various tax reviews, going all the way back to the Asprey report in 1975, the Ralph review in 1999, the Henry review and the coalition's own tax discussion paper in 2015. The reason that we are dealing with this is that the flexibility provided by trusts can allow some Australians to plan their tax affairs in ways that aren't available to most workers and to most families. We recognise that there are—
Kevin Hogan Page, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House
The point of order is on relevance. Besides the protection racket that's being run on the small-business minister here—
Milton Dick Speaker
Absolutely not. You can leave the chamber for that abuse.
The member for Page then left the chamber.
I've had enough of people abusing points of order on relevance. I need everyone to show the chamber some respect, not just to use it for some political attacks. The Treasurer was asked about the changes in tax structure. He's deliberately being relevant. We're not going to have that sort of behaviour, otherwise I will start resorting to not taking points of order. I do not want to do that, but, if that behaviour continues by anyone in the chamber, I simply won't take points of order. Do not abuse the standing orders. Do not abuse the chamber. The Treasurer has the call.
Jim Chalmers Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer
I'm asked about the number of trusts and the number of small businesses. What we've seen in the last 20 years is that the number of discretionary trusts has more than doubled. But, even with that being the case, the vast majority of Australians—somewhere around 95 per cent—don't receive trust income, and less than 10 per cent of small businesses will be affected in any given year by the changes that we are seeking to legislate after tomorrow.
Now, the other really important point is that we have ensured that there are a range of options for all of those small businesses to pay a wage to beneficiaries or to restructure into a fixed trust or into a company with expanded rollover relief, or to choose to be exempt by electing to make fixed distributions. There are a range of options available to all of those small businesses and all of those trusts—rollover relief and other mechanisms—should those people, those small businesses and those trusts, elect to change their arrangements because of the change that we're proposing.
The final point is this: these changes don't come in until the middle of 2028. What we've done is provide the necessary arrangements for people to restructure their affairs, if they would like to do that. But even as it stands right now, less than 10 per cent of small businesses will be affected in any given year by the changes that we are proposing. (Time expired)