Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The first point I would make is that the tax office has well in excess of 20,000 staff. The second point I would make is that the staffing efficiencies in the tax office were actually initiated by the previous Labor-Green government. You come in here on your high horse and attack us for efficiencies in the tax office that were initiated by the government that you were a part of. The third point I would make is that we support those efficiencies because we happen to think that the tax office in 2014 can do its job better and in a more efficient way with less manpower because of all the opportunities that we have these days through modern technology and the like to manage compliance work in this space in a less manually intensive way. To think that in order to improve compliance you need more bodies sitting at desks completely ignores the way that compliance in the modern tax system is properly managed.

I want you to get away from the proposition that somehow the tax office is not doing a good job. The tax office is doing a very good job, but this is always a very dynamic area. Clearly, there is a creative tension. The tax office has the job of raising revenue consistent with the laws of the land, and people out there who are responsible for paying tax will try to find ways to legitimately minimise their tax obligations. As these sorts of developments happen it is our job to monitor developments in the market and to respond to them as appropriate and as they occur. I reject completely out of hand the suggestion that somehow the tax office is not doing a good job. We have an outstanding tax commissioner. Chris Jordan, who was appointed by the previous government, is doing an outstanding job.