Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Tax Laws Amendment (2008 Measures No. 5) Bill 2008 is a tax law amendment bill that has five schedules. I am up to the fifth schedule so there is not terribly much to go. The fifth schedule deals with managed funds and changes to eligible investment business rules. We foreshadowed this amendment during the last election campaign and we announced it in the 2008-09 budget.

The amendments are to the eligible investment rules for managed investment trusts, which are contained in division 6C of the Income Tax Assessment Act. These amendments clarify the scope and meaning of investment in land for the purpose of deriving rent and introduce a 25 per cent safe-harbour allowance for non-rental, non-trading income from investments in land. They also expand the range of financial instruments which a managed fund can invest in or trade, and they provide a two per cent safe-harbour allowance for other non-trading income. They are part of our strategy to make Australia a funds management hub for the Asia-Pacific region. We face a lot of competition in that regard from Hong Kong and from Singapore, which seems to have a march on us in many respects.

The amendments are about modernising and clarifying the business rules for investment in relation to managed investment trusts. This is about restoring the integrity and promoting the efficiency of our taxation system. If we do not get this right we will not have the tax revenue to ensure that our economy remains vibrant, our investments in health and education will not be completed and the people in my electorate will not get the kind of financial assistance which they really need at this particular time.

We have had tremendous floods in my area in the last week or so, and people are crying out for financial assistance. By making these sorts of taxation amendments we improve the revenue base for our economy, which improves the capacity of the government to meet emergencies such as we have experienced in the last week, and my electors will benefit. In fact, 43,701 households in my electorate will benefit from the economic security strategy which we are handing down and from which the people will receive money in early December. I have conducted 31 mobile offices in the week since parliament last met, and I can assure you that the people in my area are looking forward to that money. They will need it to meet their commitments. In the circumstances I commend the bill to the House because it will benefit my electors a great deal.

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