Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Hooray! The coalition called on the government to remove schedule 3 from this bill, and they are doing so. I congratulate the members for Casey, Higgins and Wright on their outstanding work in the committee, getting rid of this flawed schedule of the bill. It is a far-reaching change. It may be that directors who have innocently misunderstood the complex superannuation law or have inadequate management systems in place will potentially be exposed to liability for the superannuation guarantee. The issue of independent contractors versus employees could also cause difficulties, as this schedule of the bill exposes directors to personal liability for superannuation guarantee payments in respect of people who may have been treated as contractors for a long period of time. So the government was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and thankfully the nut has rebelled and they are removing this schedule from the bill. We support this amendment.

Question agreed to.

by leave—I move amendments (1) and (2) in my name:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (before line 1), table item 2, omit “Schedules 1 and 2”, substitute “Schedule 1”.

(2) Schedule 2, page 6 (line 1) to page 7 (line 2), omit the Schedule.

As previously stated, the coalition strongly opposes this attempt by the government to retrospectively change the tax law. It is extraordinary that there is a case before the full bench of the Federal Court at the moment on this particular issue and the government is trying to introduce retrospective legislation to validate its position before the court, which effectively denies individuals the chance to take the Commissioner of Taxation to court and see the matter through to a final conclusion. This means that individuals are denied the right to challenge an interpretation of the tax laws by the Commissioner of Taxation without this government introducing retrospectivity. It is for these reasons that the coalition seeks the removal of schedule 2 from this bill.

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