Bill Heffernan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Following directly on from Senator Xenophon's remarks, the retrospectivity elements of the Tax Laws Amendment (Cross-Border Transfer Pricing) Bill 2012 is an admission of fault by the legislators, not the taxpayers. If the thing is flawed then it means there are umpteen holes throughout the tax legislation. We have taken evidence on that in the Senate inquiry into foreign investment and the national interest test to the point where it is now patently obvious that a super fund or whatever has a serious profit advantage in taking capital out of Australia and then bringing it back. When we have got to that stage we have got serious problems. But why go back eight years because the people who drew up the legislation—and it does not matter who the government of the day was—got it wrong? So you punish the people who have obeyed the law, and the people who drew up the faulty legislation probably got a bonus. What sort of ratbaggery is that?