Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

We heard this afternoon about the government's consultation paper on CGT reform regarding arrangements for innovative startups. We heard the government's going to look to concepts like innovation and commercialisation, scalability and growth—all great words, all very interesting. Of course, one way of dealing with taxation in this country would be to simplify it and reduce it. But, anyway, we'll go we'll go down this path for a minute, just to humour ourselves. What we didn't hear, of course, from the government in question time today is how they're going to determine whether a business is sufficiently innovative and who's going to be the beneficiary of this in general terms.

You would think, if you were releasing a tax policy, you'd have a little more detail over it. But no, we've got a consultation paper. Which companies are going to be involved? I mean, are we going to get these for their friends in the pharmaceutical business, pharmaceutical companies? We don't know, because the Labor government is proposing effectively to let Canberra bureaucrats make those decisions. This side of the chamber would say, 'What's wrong with that?' Well, does anyone remember COVID? Does anyone remember what happens when we let the bureaucracy run rampant and wild in relation to making decisions about these sorts of matters?

One thing I will say off the topic, though, is that pharma are innovative. We've got to give them that. They are always finding innovative ways to sell us their products. This week we heard all about the two birds—did you hear about this? They found two birds in WA. They got them. They were two birds. One of them had the sniffles, and the other one appears to have been listless at home drinking chicken soup. These birds are almost like the bell ringing on the pharmaceutical company's guilt trip, saying: 'We're entering the winter season. We're about to lean on you to get your flu shot, and now we've found two birds with the sniffles.' Two birds are going to going to make you—you've got to hand it to them; that's innovative. I'd give them a tax break every day of the week, because these companies have made some of the best public relations steps you've ever seen. Protect yourself. Protect grandma. Protect the vulnerable. Now we've got avian influenza doing the heavy lifting.

It's the same pattern, year after year: a new variant; a new scare. When Australians are at home wondering whether they should book their annual flu jab or just sit in front of the TV with chicken soup, they are getting this innovative spin from pharmaceutical companies. I'm not saying that the birds are in on it, but if they start claiming superannuation I think we've got a problem! If history has taught us anything, though, it's that fear is a real sales tool and winter is the favourite season. That's innovation for you.

Back to the issue of taxation—we now are at a point where this system has become so complicated and so difficult to navigate that it's like the AFL draft. You simply cannot negotiate it without people that are heavily invested in it. This is an endemic problem that, I would say, this government have ably contributed to over the last period. You almost can't navigate your life as an average Australian citizen without employing a team of experts to help you. If you're a tradie out there now, this tax system has become so complicated that you need to spend thousands of dollars a year just to stay compliant—we're not talking about getting a particular edge or whatever—just to simply stay within the confines of the law.

This government, rather than simplifying matters by, say, reducing the tax burden, is actually making it more complicated. We don't know who's in and who's out. We don't know. There are a range of things that we simply do not understand, and that's because it's been done on the fly without a proper plan and with, I would say, a particular backlash from industry. Now they're trying to pick favourites. It's worse than that—they're going to let the Canberra bubble pick favourites. That's not the way you run a country.