Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is true. He has never worked anywhere else. He has only ever worked in the Australian Taxation Office. That has been his only job, all his life. Believe it or not, one of the other natives in the woodpile is Mr Fitzpatrick, who is now their senior counsel. I met with him and a group of other people in this House and he said about a court case that was adverse to the Australian Taxation Office: ‘We’re going to ignore it, because we don’t like the ruling.’ We said, ‘What are the people going to do who end up being exposed to you as a result of your ignoring this ruling?’ He said, ‘They can take us to court.’ That was his attitude, Fitzpatrick—‘Take us to court.’ How can poor little Mr and Mrs business man and woman out there in voter land take on the Australian Taxation Office in court for years and years? Of course they cannot. That is the arrogant and disgraceful behaviour of the Australian Taxation Office, led by the people whom I have mentioned. That is why people have to make a submission to Tony Smith’s inquiry through the Public Accounts Committee of this parliament and let the committee know if they have been subject to any of that.

Mr D’Ascenzo has put out a booklet called, Making it Easier to Comply. Page 30 mentions the ‘Review of Aspects of Income Tax Self Assessment’—in other words, the ROSA review. What Mr D’Ascenzo is saying here is that from now on, as a result of legislation in this place late last year, the tax office cannot go back more than two years. If the tax office has not dealt with your taxation issues within two years, the issues stand. After that period, a taxpayer’s income tax assessment will generally not be amended unless—and here is the worry, and why we are going to have a close look at this legislation—they have been involved in tax avoidance or have deliberately sought to evade their tax responsibilities. This is within the purview of the taxation commissioner. So he still has a subjective ability to review income tax assessments past two years. That is an issue we need to have a look at.

This legislation is timely. It should have happened a long time ago. The promoters of these schemes should not have been allowed to drag people into schemes, grab their money and run off into the business world and see those people persecuted. (Time expired) 

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