Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hope that the parliamentary secretary in the chamber, or his adviser, will be able to indicate in his response to Senator Stephens why these things cannot be done electronically. It is simply mind-boggling in this day and age to think that the Australian Taxation Office cannot deal with this electronically. They have a huge staff. They do a pretty good job, even if it is a job that most of us do not like interacting with. As Australians we do not like to pay tax, but we all do. It does seem incredible that with all the resources of the tax office they cannot do this sort of thing electronically. It is not as if there is a great evidentiary process to go through. You pay the price of fuel. We know what the price is. You can establish that you have paid the price and you can establish the excise you have paid. It should be a very simple matter of getting it back.

Senator Stephens highlights the fact that my concern has been directed more to the impact on fishermen, although I have to say that a lot of farmers in my area have contacted me personally. I have been a bit surprised that, particularly on our side of politics, more concern has not been raised about this. I am told that some of the representative farming organisations are quite satisfied with what is happening. Whilst my specific request to the minister is to give me an undertaking in relation to fishermen, I would hope that at the time of the assessment, in 18 months, the Treasurer might also look at this more widely. I am not asking for an undertaking on this, because I have not thought it through carefully enough. It may be that the assessment or the investigation that I am asking the Treasurer to commit to might go that bit wider to see the impact on other people who will in the next two years benefit to a degree from this transitional arrangement.

I have particular confidence in the Treasurer. I think Australia is indeed a very lucky country in that we have for the last 10 years been able to rely on the expertise of Peter Costello to get the country to where it is. What he has done with the economy generally has really surpassed anything that any of his fellow treasurers in the advanced nations around the world have done. I suspect he is probably getting on to being one of the most experienced of treasurers in the Western world as well. That all shows in the work that he has done and in the very fine touch he has had on the economy of our country. So I have confidence in Mr Costello to seriously look at these issues.

This particular bill puts in place arrangements that came up two years ago, as I mentioned in my speech in the second reading debate, which are really not the Treasurer’s responsibility. As I understand it, they are more the responsibility of another minister dealing with the energy white paper. If the investigation in relation to fishermen which I am seeking an undertaking on does show some trends, I am confident that the Treasurer will get his officers or whoever is doing the investigation to look a little bit wider. If there are problems that we can correct then I am confident that the Treasurer will do it.

We are a government that over the last 10 years have bent over backwards to try to put Australia on the right path. None of the decisions the government make are ever intended to be deliberately nasty, if I can say it in that way, to taxpayers or anyone else. We want to try to do what is right. Sometimes anomalies do creep in. In this instance, the Labor Party amendment is on the right track—which is why I am attracted to the principle—but I think we can overcome that and move on with the bill and the other legislation we have to deal with tonight if I can get an undertaking from the Treasurer to have a look at it.