Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, they have made a judgement, as I understand it, on balance, that they oppose the bill. That is fine. That is their right. They have made the judgement that opposing schedule 2 is more important than supporting schedule 1—that protecting the lineal descendants of family trusts is more important than providing capital gains tax relief for members of health funds which demutualise. That is fine. That is their judgement. We disagree. It will go to a vote and the House will decide. When it goes to the other place, every senator is entitled to move an amendment. We will not be splitting bills if the opposition decide that they support bits of a bill and oppose other bits. They have to move the amendments and then vote accordingly.

This bill represents a clear election commitment by the now government. It is part of our savings plan. It saves $19 million over four years. Those were the estimates prepared by Treasury. They cannot have it both ways. They say that the Treasury estimate is wrong. These were the Treasury estimates that were put in the bill when the previous government proposed it. They are the same estimates—

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