Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor’s position on the GST has been set out time and time again. Everyone in this chamber knows our position on the GST. The GST is here. It is a monster tax and a compliance nightmare for small business. I would have thought that the member for Moncrieff would be more concerned about the compliance nightmare of the GST for small business, instead of standing up here defending the GST. With all those small businesses and microbusinesses in the Gold Coast hinterland, what is he going to do when he goes back to his electorate? He is standing in this chamber and saying, ‘We’ve got this GST; isn’t it terrific.’ What about the small businesses that have to bear the burden? What about ordinary Australians who have to bear the burden of an incentive-crushing income tax system with income tax rates that are much higher than they need to be for everyday, honest Australians? The tax rates are much higher for one reason and one reason only: this government does not have the guts to crack down on its rich mates, on high-wealth individuals.

In its annual report just this year, the Australian Taxation Office warned and lamented that, unfortunately, there is no shortage of work for the serious non-compliance unit. That is a bureaucratic way of saying that tax evasion in this country is out of control. At last we have one piece of legislation to deal with one category of unscrupulous high-wealth individuals—that is, barristers who hide their assets, deliberately go bankrupt and think they are home clear. At last, as a result of this government picking up Labor’s suggestions, we have legislation here in the parliament. That is great. Now I say to the member for Moncrieff, ‘Get the bit between your teeth.’ It feels good, surely, after 10 long years, and, in this case, after five years of task force analysis and recommendation, to move a piece of legislation in this parliament that ensures that at least one category of high-income earners will not be able to rort the system. But the other high-income earners are able to rort the system because this government has made it easier for them.

The government came into office with a promise to reduce red tape by 50 per cent. The barometer of red tape in this country is the size of the Income Tax Act. When this government came to office the Income Tax Act ran to 3,500 pages. It now runs to more than 9,000 pages. It has become ever more complex. It is an incredible compliance burden on honest businesses and honest taxpayers. But at the same time it is a rich harvest for those who are determined to avoid and evade tax, because it is riddled with loopholes. There is an elephant in the coalition party room and it has been encouraged to ram hole after hole in the Income Tax Act, cheered on by the member for Moncrieff, by National Party members and by those who support the aggressive marketing of tax avoidance schemes—ramming holes in the income tax system and making honest lower and middle-income Australians foot the bill.

The game is up. This government has to crack down on tax cheats. In the next couple of years it will be evident that tax evasion and avoidance is as rampant as it was in the notorious bottom-of-the-harbour scheme arrangements condoned by the then Treasurer of the country, John Howard. Three telephone books worth of advice and finally he was shamed into acting, shamed by the Australian Labor Party. And we will shame you again into dealing with the unscrupulous behaviour of the high-wealth tax cheats in this country.

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