Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You brought these measures in in 2009. This was your legislation. So if you had kept up and if you were paying attention, you would realise that. This was your idea. Let us just go over it again: to tax options up-front before anybody could realise the benefit from those options. You do understand this, don't you? You do understand what we are doing here today? I really hope you are paying attention because, if you put the tax up-front, nobody can realise the benefit. People are not going to pay the tax up-front. There will not be any options. You are not going to take them, are you, because you have to pay the tax up-front?

Was that ever going to work? That was a very silly idea, wasn't it? You could say that paying your tax up-front was a very silly idea. Do you think it is surprising that any taxpayer in any start-up venture is not going to take these options—

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

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