Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I appreciate the comments of the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law in relation to this matter, about which I have had a number of useful discussions with the minister’s office. But, with respect to the minister and to the government, the purpose of this motion is to make it clear that those tax officials who have information to give to the inspector-general, who, clearly, is independent, are given an assurance that there will be no recriminations against them from the Australian Taxation Office. There is a concern—and we know what happens to whistleblowers and of the retribution against them—that for this inquiry to be effective in relation to this very comprehensive Change Program, where there has been a cost blow-out in the hundreds of millions of dollars and chaos in terms of hundreds of thousands of returns not being processed in time, it is important that there be an assurance from the Australian tax office that there will be no recriminations against their employees for coming forward to the Inspector-General of Taxation.

I commend the minister for requesting the inquiry. This motion is about ensuring that the inquiry of the Inspector-General is as effective, as fulsome and as robust as possible. There is a genuine concern that the men and women of the tax office who are at the front line of dealing with this new IT system may be reluctant to come forward without these assurances. That is why I think it is important that we go down this path and request of the tax office that they give assurances to the Senate in relation to this. Also, in relation to the timing of it: it is a request, not an order, to the Inspector-General to do so. And it is only a progress report. I think it is important that we put this in context.

Again, I commend the government for instigating the Inspector-.General’s inquiry in relation to this. This would enhance the inquiry and enhance what I believe, genuinely, the government is trying to do—to get to the bottom of what appears to be a debacle in relation to the IT system.