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

No, I am not here to answer questions that have been directed to the government. That would be improper. But I do want to refer Senators Macdonald and Cormann, I think quite properly, to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee’s report that was tabled just yesterday on this piece of legislation. I attended that inquiry from the beginning to the very end. It is important to take into account page 10 of that report, which looked at the issue of exemptions. Treasury officials advised the committee that a draft of the legislative instrument has been released for consultation. It identifies those individuals who will be exempted from the levy as being: firstly, recipients of Australian government disaster recovery payments; secondly, individuals affected by disaster declared under the natural disaster recovery and relief arrangements, the NDRRA; and, thirdly, New Zealand citizens holding special category visas who are not eligible for an Australian government disaster recovery payment, despite meeting the eligibility requirements.

In the course of the evidence given to that inquiry I asked questions in relation to the Stockport floods in South Australia. People have lost their homes in this flood event that affected this small but very precious and valuable community in the mid-north of South Australia. In response to the concerns raised, Treasury explained that in those areas of South Australia that have been the subject of a declaration made under NDRRA and where at least one of the following conditions was satisfied—the individual was seriously injured; the individual was the immediate family member of an Australian that was killed, the individual’s principal place of residence was destroyed or sustained major damage, the individual was unable to gain access to their principal place of residence for at least 24 hours, or the individual was stranded in their principal place of residence for at least 24 hours—the affected individuals would be covered by item 2 of the legislative instrument.

Mr Robinson from Treasury confirmed that individuals will be exempt from the levy in the sense that, according to the Disaster Assist website, for the severe weather situation in South Australia in early December 2010, NDRRA assistance was declared for the local government areas of the Clare Valley, the Gilbert Valley, Loxton, Waikerie, Mid Murray and the Barossa. So they were the areas covered and they were the criteria for that, and that is at page 11 of the report. That is my understanding and I think that the criteria are set out quite clearly there in the circumstances in which it applies. There are effectively two streams that would apply as to who would be exempt from it, and those declarations are usually made at a state level as part of the NDRRA.

I am quite comfortable about the administrative arrangements made. Obviously, there are issues about the administrative simplicity in terms of people being able to apply for an exemption and that is something that I think the government is acutely aware of. You do not want it to be onerous. With regard to Senator Cormann’s and Senator Back’s quite proper concerns for their constituents in Western Australia in relation to bushfires, I do not think it is contingent on the Prime Minister or a member of the government making a statement as such. If there is a declaration given for a particular area under the NDRRA arrangements then that would apply.

I think there have been other comments made, quite reasonably, about mitigation. If you look at the NDRRA document, and in particular the new NDRRA determination that was tabled yesterday—which took a number of weeks of very intense negotiations between my office and the government—you will see it sets out guidelines for those relief arrangements where the whole issue of mitigation is a principal concern. Reference is made to paragraph 2 of the guidelines: ‘A fundamental principle of the current arrangements is that they should not be seen as a disincentive to plan, mitigate or allocate resources for natural disasters nor discourage governments, individuals or businesses taking out insurance to protect their assets.’

I hope I have been able to assist the committee in relation to some of the concerns that have been raised. The report of Senate inquiry that was conducted recently by the Senate Economics Legislation Committee sorted out a number of these quite legitimate concerns that have been raised by my colleagues this morning, in particular Senators Cormann, McDonald and Fisher. I hope that is of some assistance to the committee consideration of this bill.