John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of Senator Birmingham, the deputy chair, I present the 120th report of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, Treaties tabled on 5 July and 16 August 2011. I seek leave to incorporate a tabling statement.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

Senate

Tabling Statement

Report 120:

Treaties tabled on 5 July and 16 August 2011

Senator Simon Birmingham

Deputy Chair, Joint Standing Committee on Treaties

For presentation on Tuesday 11 October 2011

Mr President, today I present the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties' Report 120, which contains the Committee's views on, firstly, a series of treaties on Antarctic environmental and tourism issues which were tabled in the Commonwealth Parliament on 5 July 2011. The Report also reviews five taxation treaties and a social security treaty, which were tabled on 16 August 2011.

Mr President, I intend to briefly comment on all the treaties dealt with in this report.

Firstly, there are three proposed amendments to the Antarctic Treaty, which will:

These amendments align with Australia's commitment to protecting the Antarctic environment.

Mr President, I will now turn to the Agreement between Australia and the Republic of Hungary on Social Security.

This treaty provides access to Hungarian age, disability or survivor's benefit for Australians of Hungarian descent who worked in Hungary long enough to establish an entitlement to these benefits.

The Treaty also ensures that people who move between Australia and Hungary will have their entitlement to benefits recognised in both countries.

Finally, Mr President, I would like to deal with the five tax treaties covered in the Report, which involve the Marshall Islands, Mauritius and Montserrat.

These treaties are part of Australia's implementation of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) standards on the elimination of harmful tax practices.

The Committee supports these treaties as they are a powerful tool for transparency in international financial transfers.

Previous tax treaties have resulted in a decline in fund flows from Australia of 80 per cent to Liechtenstein, 50 per cent to Vanuatu, and 22 per cent to Switzerland.

I each case, the Committee concludes that these treaties should be supported with binding action.

Mr President, I commend the report to the Senate.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.