Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill introduces changes to ensure that details of the working holiday-maker employer register are not made public. It also ensures information sharing between the Australian Taxation Office and the Fair Work Ombudsman, is undertaken in situations in which an entity is actually or is reasonably suspected of non-compliance with a tax law.

Through minor amendments to the taxation laws, this bill removes the ability for details of the employer register to be made public on the ABN Lookup.

This change will not affect the operation of the employer register or the rules applying to employers of working holiday-makers. All employers of working holiday-makers will still be required to register with the ATO in order to withhold at the 15 per cent tax rate.

The register addresses concerns about the exploitation of working holiday-makers and will provide valuable data on working holiday-makers. This amendment being introduced today does not affect the requirement for the ATO to report this information annually to the Treasurer, for presentation to the parliament. This reporting process involves aggregate employer information and will not identify any working holiday-maker employers.

This bill also ensures information sharing between the ATO and the Fair Work Ombudsman will be limited to situations in which an entity is actually or is reasonably suspected of non-compliance with a tax law.

Full details of this bill are contained in the explanatory memorandum.

Debate adjourned.