Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today in support of this very sensible amendment. Before speaking specifically on the amendment, can I make a couple of observations about the Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Measures No. 3) Bill 2019. This is yet another bill in relation to taxation that we face in this place that is not particularly objectionable but that is incredibly narrow, unambitious and just not good enough for the circumstances that we face.

As earlier speakers on this side—the shadow Assistant Treasurer, the member for Kingsford Smith and the member for Fenner— have pointed out, there are many significant issues that no bills that we face in this place deal with. Not only is this bill a bill which fails to deal with an inconsistent exclusion—I'll get to that when I talk about the amendment—but this is a bill that's failed to deal with broader issues of transparency. As the member for Fenner just pointed out and the member for Kingsford Smith pointed out, there are issues to do with international taxation that we should be looking at in this place. Base erosion and profit shifting is a major issue for the Australian economy and all advanced economies. These are issues that we should be debating in this place, but instead we get bill after bill after bill which corrects semicolons, and it's not good enough. The people of Australia and the economy of Australia deserve better.

The OECD and the G20 have set up a major program with 135 participating countries developing 15 actions—a major suite of policies to deal with base erosion and profit shifting. We don't discuss any of that in this place in relation to specific bills—substantive bills—that are put forward. Instead, we deal with minor technical amendment after minor technical amendment. We're happy to support those going through if tweaking the tax bills are necessary, but what we also need to see in addition to fixing up minor technical issues with taxation legislation are substantive framework issues to improve the tax base, to improve the efficiency of our tax system. Let's look at the specific amendment that Rex Patrick has put forward and that I will also speak in support of. Rex Patrick's amendment removes an exemption that allows certain proprietary companies to avoid lodging financial reports with ASIC.

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