Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Tax Laws Amendment (2009 Measures No. 3) Bill 2009. I will be giving most of my attention to schedule 4 of the bill, which lists three new organisations as deductible gift recipients, or DGRs. I will also make some mention of schedules 1, 2 and 3 because they are very important reforms, particularly for the small business sector. In my electorate of Page there are more than 11,000 registered small business operators—and that is a rough figure; we know there are a lot more than that.

Schedule 1 of the bill relates to the pay as you go tax instalment system. The government will reduce PAYG instalments in 2009-10 for taxpayers who pay quarterly instalments on the basis of the GDP adjusted notional tax method by setting the GDP adjustment at two per cent. This reduction will provide around $720 million of cash-flow benefits to small businesses, self-funded retirees and other eligible taxpayers by ensuring that their PAYG instalments more closely approximate their actual income tax liability for 2009-10. The reduction will also provide a further economic stimulus to support Australian jobs, because taxpayers will have the use of around $720 million that would otherwise be overpaid tax. This is one of the issues that small businesses frequently complain about. So I welcome the change, and it is a good that the government is introducing it.

Schedule 2 relates to annual PAYG instalments when taxpayers are voluntarily registered for GST. The introduction of the annual GST payments in 2004 without a change in the annual PAYG instalment conditions at that time has created a misalignment between the PAYG and GST instalment systems. Some annual GST payers are prevented from making annual PAYG instalments solely because of their voluntary GST registration. This imposes unnecessary compliance costs on these taxpayers—and that is the last thing we want, particularly in these times. These amendments will allow taxpayers to choose to make PAYG instalments annually when they are voluntarily registered for GST and meet the other eligibility test for annual PAYG instalments. This will reduce the compliance costs for eligible taxpayers. The amendments will apply in relation to instalments for income years starting after 30 June 2009.

Schedule 3 introduces a functional currency rule to the petroleum resources rent tax, or PRRT. This will reduce compliance costs for taxpayers, which is again a welcome change. It introduces a modified look-back rule for exploration expenditure related to a production licence derived from an exploration permit and a retention lease. It introduces internal petroleum provisions similar to the external petroleum provisions and provides certainty by establishing rules for internal petroleum. It extends the offshore exploration incentive for designated frontier areas by one year so that it applies to the 2009 annual offshore acreage release. That will help encourage exploration of frontier areas for another year, until the release of the Australia’s Future Tax System review and the energy white paper.

Schedule 4, the deductible gift recipients—the DGR—lists a number of new organisations. One of them that I will talk about in some detail is Diplomacy Training Program Ltd. I declared an interest of support, knowledge and involvement with the DTP over many years—since its inception about 20 years ago—and I advocated the listing of the DTP to the responsible minister. Of course, Diplomacy Training Program Ltd had to pass all the tests because it is the tax office who makes the call on it, and they have deemed it to be eligible. The Diplomacy Training Progam visited our parliament last year and attended a session with the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. They do a number of things and they have an annual training program where they bring people from the Asia-Pacific region—our region—together for a three- or four-week training program. That is what they did. They were here in Canberra and they came and met the committee and the chairs of the respective subcommittees. It was such a success that everybody—that is, the members of parliament who serve on the committee—deemed that they wanted to do it again next year. For some of the program members it was the first time that they had been able to come into a parliament, into a democratic space, and actually meet with members of parliament. Some of them said that it was amazing that they were able to do that.

I will give a brief history of the Diplomacy Training Program. It is an independent, not-for-profit association affiliated with the University of New South Wales. It was founded by Nobel Peace Laureate and President of Timor-Leste, Jose Ramos-Horta, hence some of my involvement and early working with the Diplomacy Training Program. It has a board of directors who are very eminent people in Australian life. I ask to incorporate the current board of directors into my speech.

Leave granted.

The list read as follows:

Current Board of Directors

• Emeritus Professor Paul Redmond (Chair) BA LLB LLM - Faculty of Law, UNSW
• Mr Philip Chung BEc LLB—Executive Director, Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII)
• Associate Professor Andrea Durbach, Director, Australian Human Rights Centre, UNSW
• Emeritus Professor Garth Nettheim LLB MA AO —Faculty of Law, UNSW
• Dr John Pace BA LLD —Former Secretary, UN Commision on Human Rights, Geneva
• Dr Sarah Pritchard BA LLB LLM —Barrister at Law
• Ms Louise Sylvan BA MPA —Deputy Chair, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
• Roewen Wishart, Development Manager, Australian Bush Heritage Fund
• Professor Andrew Byrnes, Associate Dean, Faculty of Law, UNSW

I thank the opposition for that. The DTP provides training for representatives of non-government organisations in the Asia-Pacific region on human rights, good governance and the rule of law. Since its inception almost 20 years ago, more than 1,400 people have participated in DTP programs from a range of countries, including East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Burma, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and many more. Several participants have also been elected or appointed to senior government positions in East Timor, Malaysia and Australia since graduating from DTP programs, so it is an organisation well worth supporting. With that contribution, I commend the bill to the House and I thank the responsible minister.

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