Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Hunter, a very prominent figure in tax matters, highlights that Cyclone Larry money will not be taxed—and, in my view, nor should it. But neither should these people who are giving up their assets, their income-earning capacity, for the long-term good of the nation. To trivialise these people and say, ‘By the way, on the way past we’re going to tax you. We’ll give you some money to give up half your water’—87 per cent in one case—‘but on the way past we’ll treat it as income in the year of receipt.’ That is an absolute disgrace. What about the message it sends? The member for Hotham was talking about the message on superannuation earlier—having something that encourages people to save and then taxing them on the way through. This is exactly the same sort of thing. The message that we are sending is the wrong message. If we are serious about natural resource management policy into the future, we have to address these sorts of matters.

The other issue that I would like to raise briefly relates to personal income tax. The Minister for Revenue, who is at the table, is very much aware of this. I am an admirer of the minister, but I cannot believe that he has allowed the bureaucracy to get this into a bill. I urge him to stand up against Treasury in future arrangements.

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