Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Another amendment, another try-on by the member for Fraser. I am a little bit disappointed by the member for Fraser. I kind of like the member for Fraser. I particularly like it when he gets up and speaks about agricultural issues.

Dr Leigh interjecting—

I am sure you did. I do respect his economic views if not his economic philosophies. I know he is a very smart fellow when it comes to economics. But the other day, in fact it was 26 February, I listened earnestly at the table to the speech by the member for Fraser on appropriation bills Nos 3 and 4. In that debate, the member for Fraser quoted Peter Costello, that great Treasurer. He never won the world's best Treasurer title, unlike the member for Lilley, but for what he did for this country he certainly should have been regarded as the world's best Treasurer. The member for Fraser quoted Peter Costello not once, not twice, but indeed three times during his speech. One quote that the member for Fraser did not put forward was this one. Peter Costello said:

That makes tomorrow April 21, 2006 Debt Free Day. It is the day we pay off the mortgage.

It was the day the Liberal-Nationals government finally paid back the budget debt left by the Hawke-Keating governments. How much was that? It was $96 billion. It was called the 'Beazley black hole' by Peter Costello. It was a good quote, and I am a bit disappointed that the member for Fraser in his research on Peter Costello—and good research it was—did not actually use that quote.

I rise to speak on the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No. 1) Bill 2014 to which the member for Fraser has just moved amendments. As I said, it is another try-on by the member for Fraser. But we need to understand that on coming to government there were 96 tax and superannuation announcements which had not yet been legislated. We dealt with four as part of abolishing the carbon and mining taxes. This backlog was in large part the result of ad hoc and dysfunctional decision making by the previous Labor government, which created uncertainty and confusion for taxpayers and their advisors. So we moved quickly to provide clarity about those matters about which we would legislate and those which would not be proceeded with. Following the assistant Treasurer's announcement on 14 December 2013, of those 92 measures, we have resolved to proceed with 34 measures; proceed with three measures with amendments; and not proceed with 55 measures. Obviously there are measures that some in the community would like to see implemented but at least they know where we stand rather than being stuck in limbo. Looking to the future, the government has committed to having a tax white paper. This will provide an opportunity for the kind of considered, sensible, rational debate about what kind of tax system will best support productivity growth and rising living standards for the future. And that is so important.

This bill gets on with the task of implementing those 34 measures which we decided would go ahead. It includes provisions which will support a more nuanced approach to the regulation of self-managed superannuation funds by the Commissioner of Taxation. The Productivity Commission's recent research study into regulators' engagement with small businesses highlighted the need for policymakers to provide regulators with a range of enforcement tools and the ability to exercise discretion in their deployment. As a matter of good regulatory design, regulators should be able to take enforcement action which is proportionate and adapted to the nature and seriousness of the compliance breach. This kind of regime empowers regulators to take a risk based approach to their compliance and enforcement activity so that scarce resources are targeted where they are needed most.

I would like to applaud the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, the federal member for Kooyong, who, in his 21 February media release entitled Coalition to clean-up statute books, talks about the Abbott-Truss government being committed to cutting a billion dollars in red and green tape as part of its first repeal day on which thousands of pages of spent and redundant legislation and regulation—some of which is more than a century old—will be repealed. It is a shame the carbon tax will not be repealed on that particular day; it is being held up and stymied in the Senate by the Labor-Greens alliance there.

Examples of legislation and regulations which will be repealed are an act from 1904 governing state divisions when the Royal Australian Navy was formed in 1913; a war service homes regulation which changed the rate of interest charged to a purchaser or borrower from four pounds to three pounds 15 shillings when Australia switched decimal currency in 1963; four acts from the 1950s that allowed for the construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme, which was completed in 1974; and the Weights And Measures (Amendment) Act 1964, which set standards for calibrating imperial measuring equipment including for pints and gallons when Australia transitioned to the metric system in the early 1970s. I remember it well; I was in primary school when they changed over. We had just learned the old imperial system, and all of a sudden we had to learn metrics. But I digress.

The member for Kooyong said:

… the Rudd and Gillard governments boasted about the amount of legislation they passed, the problem though was much of it was detrimental to the economy, cutting jobs, impeding innovation and deterring investment. The fact is the Labor government introduced 975 new or amending pieces of legislation and over 21,000 additional regulations and now it is our responsibility to clean-up the mess.

We have to stop strangling small business. Small business is the engine room of the Australian economy. It is certainly the engine room of regional Australia. It is being strangled by red tape and, worse still, by green tape, and we have to get rid of that red and green tape. As the member for Kooyong states:

To give you a sense of the significant increase in the amount of legislation and regulation, it is worth mentioning that in 1912 the federal parliament passed just 43 acts and created just 254 statutory rules, while in 2012 it passed 206 acts and created 1702 regulations. There are now nearly 800 current acts of Parliament and 50,000 regulations on the Federal Register and the Abbott Government is determined to clean-up the statute books. On the Parliament’s first ever repeal day, we will repeal more than 100 acts and over 8,000 regulations.

I applaud the member for Kooyong for his diligent work in this regard. He goes on to say:

The spent and redundant legislation and regulation will be tabled in the House of Representatives on March 19 and debated as part of the Coalition’s Repeal Day on March 26.

And I say: bring it on.

Currently the Commissioner of Taxation's scope to address breaches by the trustees of self-managed superannuation funds is essentially limited to cases of serious noncompliance. In that situation, the commissioner is empowered to take serious action, such as disqualifying a fund trustee. Under the amendments contained in schedule 2, the commission will be able to issue directions to trustees to rectify their actions or undertake further education, and there will be penalties where those directions and certain other provisions of the superannuation law are not complied with.

Schedule 1 of the bill also bolsters the integrity of the superannuation industry by introducing penalties for those who promote illegal early release schemes. Such schemes are marketed to people as a way of accessing their superannuation savings earlier than they are eligible to under the law. Promoters typically take a portion of their victims'—and I do use the word 'victims' there—superannuation savings as their fee. Promoters of illegal release schemes can currently be pursued, in some circumstances, by either the Commissioner of Taxation or by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. These new provisions will establish a clear and specific regime. Consistent with principles of good regulatory design, schedule 1 employs civil penalties and the scope to escalate to criminal sanctions where dishonesty or an intention to defraud is involved.

Promoters of illegal release schemes exploit vulnerable people and effectively steal a significant part of their retirement savings; their behaviour deserves to be punished. People who have saved hard, worked hard and had that nest egg put away do not deserve this kind of practice, and the coalition is going to move to see that this kind of action receives the appropriate punishment.

Schedule 3 gives effect to the phase-out of the net medical expenses tax offset. NMETO was poorly targeted and ineffective in delivering timely support. As a non-refundable tax offset, NMETO delivered nothing to low-income earners, with small or no tax liability but high out-of-pocket expenses. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is expected to cover all expenses previously covered by NMETO for those who have a funded support plan.

The NDIS is a good idea; it is a very good idea. I certainly support it. In fact, I was the first federal member in New South Wales to actually sign up to the NDIS supporters agreement. It possibly ranks as one of the only good ideas to emerge from the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era. But it is telling that all we got from Labor in the lead-up to the election was glossy ads and brochures promising some of the most vulnerable members of our community that their lives would be better. I think it is unconscionable to raise the hopes of vulnerable people without knowing that you can deliver. We are in a very economically challenging time, but we will deliver. The coalition government will deliver. Labor has left us to make good on those promises, and we will. We will deliver an NDIS which supports people with a disability to be independent and in control of their lives to the greatest extent possible.

We will deliver an NDIS that is here to stay, with strong foundations that are financially sustainable. We will also be up-front about the difficult choices we face in ensuring that our healthcare system is sustainable into the future, and it is going to be difficult. Morris Iemma—a former Labor Premier of New South Wales, and a good man; he was also the health minister prior to becoming Premier—once said that, if the New South Wales government had not taken action, the entire state budget would be consumed wholly and solely by the health budget, by the needs and strains placed upon that state health budget.

Those opposite in federal Labor will no doubt continue their scaremongering about a so-called 'GP tax'; yet another blatant attempt to distract from Labor's record in office; and it was not a good record. As one example, Labor promised 64 GP superclinics at a cost of $650 million. Despite being promised since 2007, 26 are still not opened, and less than 10 per cent opened on time.

As the Minister for Health has already made very clear to the parliament, the coalition recognises the importance of primary health care. That is why we are doubling the incentive for general practitioner training, to help build a health workforce which can support people in identifying health risks early and taking preventive action. That is so important, especially in rural and regional Australia, where access to health is not always ready at hand, where the tyranny of distance is an important factor in medical provisions.

I look forward to the opening of the new Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. The mental health wing was a recent great addition to the city. I acknowledged in my address-in-reply the funding that the Labor government provided to the initiative. I also applaud the state coalition government for its vital—and not before time—spending on the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. The Griffith hospitals and the Hillston multipurpose service have also been funded, and that is needed and welcomed by those communities in the west and north-west of the Riverina electorate I am so privileged to serve.

The coalition also recognises that it is essential that the Commonwealth live within its means and starts to pay down Labor's debt. As I said, Peter Costello and the Howard government inherited a $96 billion debt. That is almost a drop in the bucket, Member for Cowper, compared to what we have now.

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