Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Excellent; wonderful. The result overall of simplifying these taxation laws will mean a reduction in size of the laws altogether. We are scrapping over 50 existing provisions and replacing them with only one or two new provisions. We are making up for former Prime Minister Rudd's failed 'one regulation in, one regulation out' policy. This government is making tax law easier to use and easier to comply with, but we are not altering any current tax policies. We are keeping our changes simple, the way government regulations should be. We are tidying up laws in line with good legislative practice. It is an important part of the care and maintenance of our tax system.

The bill reduces the regulatory burden on the associates of individuals seeking to obtain a shareholding of more than 15 per cent in certain financial sector companies, such as banks and insurance companies. This measure removes a technical legislative trap that imposes unnecessary regulatory burden without compromising the intention of the regulation. Currently, when a person is seeking a shareholding of more than 15 per cent of a financial sector company, they must seek approval from the Treasurer for the shareholding. In addition, any associates of that person must also seek approval from the Treasurer for the shareholdings, even when the associate has no actual shareholding in the company. This measure removes an unnecessary burden on the associates of a person—for example, a person's partner, relatives or related companies—who is seeking approval for a shareholding of greater than 15 per cent in certain financial sector companies. Removal of that provision does not compromise the scrutiny of a shareholder's controlling interest. Further, the Treasurer still has the authority to block shareholdings where practical control can be asserted by an associate and the Treasurer is satisfied that it is in the national interest that the shareholding be divested.

This will also rewrite the definition of 'Australia' into a single location in the tax law for use across all the tax laws in a simple and coherent form. Currently the definition of 'Australia', for taxation purposes, is complex, overly detailed and expressed differently in different parts of the taxation legislation. This is all despite the fact that tax laws are intended to achieve simple and largely equivalent results. If you were working on an offshore oil rig, for example, near Australia and wanted to know whether workers had to pay income tax in Australia, you would have to navigate through about 13 different pieces of Australian legislation. I have had constituents contact me about this specific issue. I think any Australian out there who had to consider 13 pieces of legislation to simply determine whether they had to pay tax or not would be correct in thinking that it is a bit of a burden and a bit over the top. That is why the coalition government is going to fix it.

The complex and ad hoc existing definitions will be consolidated into one place of definition for most tax purposes. This will assist taxpayers to better understand and comply with the laws, resulting in reduced compliance costs. This is another significant step towards achieving a single income tax assessment act for Australia.

Like my coalition colleagues in the chamber here who will be speaking on this very soon, I wholeheartedly support this government's deregulation agenda and these new changes. It is disappointing that the opposition have shown such little interest in job creation and lowering costs for not-for-profit groups and Australian families. Their lack of interest in speaking on this bill says it all—all they are interested in is stifling investment and job creation. They want to continue the failed 'one regulation in, one regulation out' policy that Kevin Rudd instituted. With more than 21,000 additional regulations introduced by the previous Labor government—that is, the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government—we really need to be axing 10 regulations for every new regulation.

Government is there to assist Australian business, not supervise and micromanage every single aspect of their business. Small business is the backbone of the Australian economy. It is the great Australian story: mums and dads setting up shop to work hard and make a better life for their families. This government is committed to encouraging Australians to seize opportunity and be rewarded for their hard work. Government needs to get out of the way of small business and let them continue contributing to the Australian economy. Time and time again, I meet with small business operators in my electorate of Solomon and their clear message to me is: 'Let me do my job, let me make a living for my family and let me run by business without drowning in mountains of paperwork and hours of complicated compliance work.'

The entire coalition team is committed to deregulation, and the finance minister has certainly done his bit by introducing this bill to cut red tape. Even those opposite cannot deny that bad regulation and too much regulation hurts productivity, deters investment and innovation, and costs jobs. This government's approach will result in more efficient government and more productive business and not-for-profit sectors. This will improve our nation's competitiveness, helping to create more jobs while lowering household costs. Again, the Minister for Finance and the Treasurer should be commended for their work in contributing to the coalition's plan to repeal counterproductive, unnecessary and redundant legislation and regulations. I commend the bill to the House.

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