Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Tax Laws Amendment (2005 Measures No. 6) Bill 2005. I want to commence my remarks by commenting on the state of tax reform in this country. Over the last number of months we have seen various people in the community, from the opposition to the business community to Mr Turnbull in the other place, putting it on the Treasurer to actually engage in some tax reform. We have seen the Treasurer resisting it, saying, ‘We don’t want tax reform; what people want is tax cuts.’ Now, magically, we have a committee appointed by the Treasurer—with Mr Hendy and Mr Warburton—that is going to report on tax reform hopefully prior to the budget.

What is interesting about this is that it is quite clear that, if a committee is engaged currently in any reviews of tax, the likelihood of the committee actually impacting upon the budget is marginal. I am sure those opposite will tell us quite clearly that budget processes take far longer than this. Yet what we have is a committee that is supposed to report in time for the Treasurer to take account of this issue before the budget. Clearly what is happening is that the Treasurer is simply, by virtue of this committee, trying to take control of the tax debate—a tax debate that has been run largely out of his control via pressure from the opposition, his own backbench and the National Party. This committee is really nothing more than a chimera for the Treasurer to try to regain control of the tax debate prior to the budget.