Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (2019-20 Bushfire Tax Assistance) Bill 2020. As we've said all along in this horrific summer of fire, Labor's highest priority is to provide support and assistance to those impacted by the bushfires, whether they be local communities, families, businesses, emergency services or others. We do recognise that these are truly exceptional circumstances. We will of course support the bill and we've also supported departure from the usual practice to ensure its quick passage in the House today and, I expect, through the other place tomorrow.

After the contributions made yesterday, nobody in here needs reminding of the truly horrific nature of this summer's fires—33 lives lost, 3,000 homes destroyed, more than a billion animals killed in New South Wales alone—and all of the devastation, difficulty and challenges, whether they be in mental health or other areas, that will flow from this summer as well. Communities have truly been devastated. Our fireys, emergency services, Defence Force personnel and volunteers have saved countless lives and properties. The earlier start to the bushfire season has meant that they've had to work harder and longer than we'd hoped. This is a huge sacrifice, and this week we will ensure that the compensation payments that are to be made to people, communities and businesses are exempt from tax.

This disaster has clearly brought out the best in the Australian community, and yesterday in this place we heard many of those stories of resilience and selflessness. But it is also well worth learning from and reminding ourselves of some of the difficulties that come from the various government programs to support people who are affected. It is important that we not only put this on the record of the parliament but act on the lessons learned. It is important that we make sure the assistance gets to families, communities and businesses as quickly as possible, that the unnecessary bottlenecks are removed and that some of the concerns raised by members in this place, including the members for Eden-Monaro, Gilmore and Macquarie, are properly addressed. Despite all of the best intentions, there have been issues with the implementation of some of the disaster relief programs, and I will get to some of those in a moment.

This bill will ensure that disaster relief payments, including the disaster recovery allowance, are exempt from tax, and that grants made to small businesses and primary producers are tax free as well. It will ensure that payments provided to volunteer firefighters to compensate for the loss of income—a very important issue—are tax exempt as well. This scheme will apply to those who are self-employed or work for small and medium-sized businesses and who have been called out for more than 10 days. It will include farmers, small-business owners, tradies and contract workers in rural and regional areas, who have been hit especially hard by this fire season.

The other part of the bill, as the Treasurer just reminded us, will provide deductible gift recipient status to two trusts that have been established by the Business Council of Australia with support from their members and other businesses. The first of these is the Australian Volunteer Support Trust, which will support the families of volunteers who have tragically died fighting these fires and those who will lose their lives in future disasters. The second is the Community Rebuilding Initiative, which will focus on helping businesses and communities impacted by the fires. This initiative recognises that the task of reconstruction will take some time, so it's focused on assisting over the next five years. I want to put on record that the opposition welcomes and appreciates the BCA's decision to support kids who have lost parents in the fires and to support businesses as they try to recover. We look forward to more detail on how the funds will ensure that spending decisions are guided by the evidence of best value and greatest need.

I think it is important, given we're talking about disaster relief, that we focus on the ways in which government could be doing better when it comes to responding to these fires and providing relief in other programs to Australians who have been affected. In many instances the member for Grayndler, the Leader of the Opposition, has made a series of very constructive suggestions and calls on the government for them to act in a more substantial way as he has picked up information from so many of the communities affected over the last few months. It is worth noting that, in a number of areas where the opposition has called for action, the government has responded in some fashion. It's true of volunteer compensation, though we still need a more substantial national scheme. It's true of aerial firefighting. There was a response of sorts after the Leader of the Opposition called for one. It's true of national coordination, similarly, as well as ADF deployment, a national health response and other areas, including the environmental impact and some announcements made by the government following calls by the Leader of the Opposition.

But it's worth noting as well that there are some things that we are calling for which have still not yet been implemented. COAG, the Council of Australian Governments, clearly should have been brought together by now. It is unusual in the extreme, disappointing even, that last year was the first year there was only one COAG meeting. COAG is not due to meet for another five or six weeks or so. It beggars belief, in my view, that COAG wasn't brought together sooner to deal with and manage some of the Commonwealth and state issues which clearly are at play when it comes to responding to the devastation of these fires.

Clearly the Prime Minister should be sitting down with the fire chiefs, who've got considered views based on many, many years of experience, who've been trying to meet with the Prime Minister for some time now to relay their serious concerns, many of which, unfortunately, they've been expressing for some time and which have come true this fire season. It is extremely disappointing that the Prime Minister won't sit down with the fire chiefs to hear what they have to say.

We also want to make sure that the Bushfire and Natural Hazard Cooperative Research Centre's funding is guaranteed, and we have other proposals as well. The government was prepared to act in response to a number of the issues that the Leader of the Opposition raised in his letters and public commentary over the last few months. It should pick up and run with the remaining ones which are still left unattended. That would give the government an opportunity to respond in a more substantial way to what we've seen in this extraordinary summer of fire and smoke right throughout our country. And that's before we get to the broader topic, the important topic, of how we deal with climate change in this country.

But, on the specifics of this bill, as we say, we support the tax-free status of the bushfire relief payments. We support the DGR status of the funds which have been set up by the Business Council of Australia. We are prepared to support them through the parliament very quickly—through the House today, in fact in the next little while, and our other colleagues in the Senate tomorrow—so that, when this relief is rolled out, Australians who've been impacted enough already financially, emotionally and in other ways are not asked to also pay tax on these arrangements. We think that's a good outcome and we support that.

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