Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Service Economy, Small Business and Independent Contractors) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Mitchell has joined us; he may well have read that survey, but I bet he forgot to bring it into the chamber, because small business declared in a loud voice that the No.1 red-tape bugbear that they confront is completing the GST paperwork requirements. It is often, in the case of an independent contractor, the contractor’s spouse who does that work on weekends or at night. These are the unpaid bookkeepers; they are the unpaid tax collectors for this government. They have better things to do—have a better family life, grow their businesses—instead of doing this BAS paperwork all the time. If the government were truly listening to the voice of small business in their own electorates and to the representative organisations, they would know that this is an ongoing problem, a huge problem, six years after the introduction of the GST.

The time of BAS reckoning is with us. I am moving a second reading amendment that will allow every member of this chamber to affirm its support for the BAS Easy proposal. We will know then whether the government is fair dinkum about BAS Easy or it is not. The Treasurer said he had already introduced BAS Easy last October. Then he says in the budget, ‘This time I’m really introducing BAS Easy.’ Labor is saying, ‘Here’s the opportunity.’ It is unlikely that there will be a division on this particular piece of legislation and the second reading amendment that I am about to move before we adjourn here this afternoon, having examined the speakers list. In those circumstances, government members have several days to have a think, have a look, get across this issue and come and support Labor’s second reading amendment. Therefore, I move:

That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:“whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House calls on the Government to implement Labor’s BAS Easy option for simplifying GST bookkeeping requirements on small business with an annual turnover of less than two million dollars.”

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