Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am glad you are very strong on this, Senator Polley, because I had to work really hard to try and get Labor take a position on this during the double dissolution election. That, as I said earlier, was genuine and heartfelt, because I understand agricultural producers. I have worked with them in the past, so I know them well and I know how serious this issue is for them.

As Treasury spokesman for the Greens, it just does not make sense to me. It is not good legislation. It is really bad policy. It is a sad indictment of the government that you cannot sort out this kind of mess and that you are bringing this legislation to the Senate after very poor consultation. Every stakeholder we talked to, whether they were tourism stakeholders, in relation to the increased fee for the passenger movement charge, or agricultural producers—excluding the NFF, who are the cheerleaders for the National Party and the Liberal Party; we heard evidence from the producers themselves—want backpackers to be taxed at the same rate as Australians.

This brings us to the point: will the Senate vote for something like the Greens amendment, which simply amends the income tax amendment 1982 and makes it crystal clear that backpackers are residents for tax purposes. At the moment backpackers can self-elect to be residents or not residents when they leave the country, and that determines their tax status. Whether they are doing that correctly or not, is not investigated by the ATO. That is pretty much the evidence we heard. The ATO does not see that as a priority, because they hardly pay any tax anyway, and the ATO has no jurisdiction over them when they leave this country. They go back to their country. So the ATO made it very clear—unless Senator O'Sullivan's leader, Mr Barnaby Joyce, orders the tax department to crack down on backpackers when they are leaving the country and make the situation even worse for our reputation—the situation in this country is de facto that most backpackers will not pay tax on their first $18,000.

Senator O'Sullivan interjecting—

I will take that interjection. A number of these backpackers are legally residents for tax purposes.