Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting the Labor amendment. We have already announced a two-year transition period to help businesses align their practices so as to claim their fuel tax credits via their business activity statements. I am very pleased that Senator Macdonald has acknowledged a fact that has rarely been acknowledged during the debate on these bills tonight—that is, that there is a lot of good news in this legislation. These bills lower compliance costs and cut $1.5 billion in fuel tax from eligible businesses and individuals across the country. So it is a significant benefit to business in Australia. These bills expand fuel tax relief from approximately 185,000 to an estimated more than one million claimants.

Maintaining the transitional arrangements for all of these claimants on an ongoing basis would be unsustainable as it would require permanently maintaining two separate sets of claim arrangements. However, the government will continue to monitor the effect of fuel tax reform on business during the transition period to ensure that there are no unintended consequences or impacts of the policy on industry. In response to Senator Stephens’s comments, the use of the transitional arrangements will be closely monitored to assess uptake by all claimants and compliance costs. Treasury will further consult with users of fuel during the transition process.

To demonstrate the fact that we will continue to monitor, and specifically in response to the comments and requests of Senator Macdonald, I can inform the Senate that the Treasurer has agreed on behalf of the government to have examined at least six months prior to the end of the transitional period on 30 June 2008 the impact of the removal of early payment provisions for fishermen from that date. The results of the examination will be reported to the parliament before 31 March 2008.