David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer ) Share this | Hansard source

As I said earlier, there is a principle involved, and the principle is quite simple. It is a principle that Senator Cormann in an interview today confirmed he supports. If he supports the principle, he and his party should support the bill.

If I look in division 30 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, it refers to one of the categories being a public fund established and maintained solely for the purpose of providing religious instruction in government schools in Australia. If the principle is that the same entitlements available to religious instruction in schools should be extended to ethics-based instruction, then it should not matter whether there is one or 1,000 organisations providing ethics-based instruction. As a matter of principle a new category should be established, and that is what we are proposing.

As to this furphy about the specific listing, let me make this point: if the member for Casey is suggesting that the way we deal with all DGR applications is for government to make a case-by-case decision, then presumably he is going to repeal every category that currently exists in the act. We create categories. They are policy decisions that government takes so that you do not have to come into this place and move an amendment to the law to give DGR status to an organisation that fits within certain parameters. We allow that to be done as an administrative matter by the Commissioner of Taxation.

We are achieving equity between organisations. We are determined to do that, because we think that these organisations are doing good work that should be supported. It is a policy decision we have taken: we think that organisations of this sort, provided they tick the boxes and their bona fides are approved by the Commissioner of Taxation, should be able to raise funds that are tax deductible.

If the opposition do not support that principle, fair enough. What that means is: they do not support the principle of providing DGR status to organisations that provide ethics-based instruction in our schools. They should say that. But that is not what Senator Cormann said in his interview today.

We heard all the huff and puff from the member for Casey, but I defy him to tell me about all these tax bills that I have introduced that he reckons have a problem. If there is a problem, the problem is that he votes against these bills when we are trying to crack down on loopholes. Big businesses are ripping money out of the tax system, eroding our base, and shifting profits, and they sit over there, idly, on their hands, allowing multinationals to fleece the Australian tax base. Because, if there is a rort, a rip-off or a loophole, the Liberal Party will be there, holding hands with the exploiters; that is what they do. We are out there cracking down on them. And if the member opposite suggests that somehow the bills that I have brought into this place—

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