Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2015 Measures No. 3) Bill. The measures in this bill are characteristic of the Abbott government, a government that has failed to protect and promote Australian jobs, a government that has no proposal for the jobs of the future, a government that has rejected science and innovation at every turn, a government with no vision for this nation. The only plan that this government has is the plan to tear down everything that Labor has built.

There are two substantive measures in this bill: the reduction in the research and development tax offset and the abolition of the seafarer tax offset. Labor opposed these measures when they came before this place in the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No. 5) Bill and we will oppose them again in this bill. The proposal in this bill is that the research and development tax incentive offset be reduced from 45 per cent to 43.5 per cent for companies with an annual turnover of less than $20 million, and from 40 per cent to 38.5 per cent for all other companies.

Short-sighted attacks on science and research have been a hallmark of this government. The 1.5 per cent reduction in the offset was originally linked to Mr Abbott's signature policy, his paid parental leave scheme, and the 1.5 per cent tax on large business that was to be introduced to fund the scheme. Mr Abbott's PPL scheme has disappeared, but unfortunately the cuts to the research and development tax incentive remain

So now the only purpose of this reduction to the offset is to provide the government with a saving of $620 million over the forward estimates.

However, this is no surprise. This is exactly what we have come to expect of this government's antiscience agenda. In the two years since coming to power, the Abbott government has repeatedly attacked, undermined, rebuked and ignored science and research in Australia. Over two budgets, this government has sought to cut $3 billion overall from science, research and innovation. These two budgets have seen Commonwealth investment in science as a proportion of the budget fall to a 30-year low. This is in spite of the Prime Minister's promises to Australia's science sector.

After being elected, Mr Abbott promised to support science and asked Australia's scientists to judge his government by its performance. In his speech at the 2013 Prime Minister's Prizes for Science, Mr Abbott told the gathered audience of Australia's science and research sector:

I'm pleased to pledge the incoming Government to continue to support science to the fullest extent possible.

…   …   …

… I'd say to all of you, please, judge us by our performance …

I would concur—Mr Abbott should be judged by his performance. And there is no doubt he will not be judged well.

Mr Abbott's war on science has seen cuts to almost all of Australia's science agencies and many major research programs: a $300 million cut to the Sustainable Research Excellence in Universities scheme, a $115 million cut to CSIRO, a $75 million cut to the Australian Research Council, a $107 million cut to the cooperative research centres, an $8 million cut to the Australian Institute of Marine Science and a $28 million cut to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. But unfortunately the cuts do not stop there. There was also a $16 million cut to Geoscience Australia and a $120 million cut to Defence Science and Technology.

The Abbott government simply has no credibility when it comes to science and research—and this bill is just another example of this fact. Cuts to incentives for research and development, especially in the form they take in the bill, are particularly short-sighted and ill-advised.

In November of last year, the Minister for Industry and Science, Minister Macfarlane, told Manufacturers' Monthly:

The Government is putting in place the policies and programmes that will provide incentives for manufacturing firms to invest in technology, and research and development, in order to foster a viable, competitive and successful manufacturing industry.

Yet what we see here in this bill is exactly the opposite. These cuts will stifle innovation; they will cost investment, supress development and stop companies from being as competitive as possible.

Mr Abbott and Mr Macfarlane have sold out Australian science and research, gutting them with short-sighted and crippling cuts. Labor is the only party that is proudly committed to investing in science, research and innovation to build and sustain the jobs of the future. This is a government with no plan for the jobs of the future—no plan for innovation and development in industries that are vital for our economy.

The other substantive change in this bill is similarly baffling and short-sighted. It also threatens Australian jobs. The other substantive measure in the bill is yet another attack by the Abbott government on Australian shipping. This bill is short-sighted and is little more than another attempt by this government to undo the hard work Labor did to revitalise shipping in this country. It is a continuation of this government's war on Australian workers. It is aimed at killing future jobs for Australians in the maritime industry.

The seafarer tax offset was introduced by Labor in 2012 to level the playing field between the Australian shipping industry and the foreign shipping industry. It was part of a carefully designed package to help Australian shipping companies compete against their international rivals. The seafarer tax offset provides a rebate to employers of Australian staff for part of the income tax withheld while those staff work on international voyages. Put simply, it offers a tax break for companies who hire Australian seafarers to work on international voyages. It is payable for each employee a shipper hires, for at least 91 days in a year, on voyages to and from places outside of Australia. The amount of the offset is equivalent to 30 per cent of the seafarer's pay.

The aim of the rebate is to help strengthen the shipping industry in Australia. And who could argue with that? Surely it makes good sense when you consider that Australia is an island continent. We also take into account that 99 per cent of our exports and imports are moved by sea. We hear a lot from the Prime Minister about security and protecting our borders. Well, it is in Australia's national and security interest to have a vibrant shipping industry. This government should be standing up for the shipping industry and doing all it can to save jobs in the industry and ensure that skills are not lost.

I am sure that all Australians want to see a competitive shipping industry in Australia. The seafarer tax offset is strongly supported by the employer body, the Australian Shipowners Association. The Shipowners Association wants the seafarer tax offset retained and also expanded to the offshore sector. I am at a loss as to why the government wants to abolish this tax offset. The payment is not made to individual workers or trade unions. The tax offset is paid to a company. So it is unclear why the government is attacking the stand of the Australian Shipowners Association, which is an employer group—and an employer group which sat down over the course of a year with the Labor government and worked out this policy. This is a policy that is, first and foremost, about supporting Australian industry and supporting Australian jobs.

The agenda of this government for shipping is very clear. This bill is just one small part of their agenda against the Australian shipping industry. In other legislation we have seen the government's intention to introduce Work Choices on water. This government does not care about workers, and especially those working in the maritime industry. We saw that when the crew of the Alexander Spirit were sacked in favour of cheap overseas crew, some of whom will be paid less than $2 an hour. The crew of the Alexander Spirit wrote to many parliamentarians, including me. I would like to quote some of their letter. They wrote about their future and said:

Once unemployed, our prospects are limited given there are more than 500 seafarers out of work.

Some of us are too old to retrain and the younger members of the crew have families to support and mortgages to pay.

They went on to say:

Australia is an island nation and seafaring used to be an integral part to this. Once, going to sea was considered an honourable, long-term career option for Australia's youth. Now we look at an Australia with a rising unemployment rate, a shameful youth unemployment rate and the future is looking bleaker.

They are right. The future for seafarers under this government is bleak—and it will be bleaker still if the seafarers tax offset is abolished.

As I said earlier, the tax offset was introduced from 1 July in 2012 and was part of the Labor government's shipping policy reform Stronger Shipping for a Stronger Economy. From the outset and before the offset had been in place for two years, the Abbott government had it in its sights. It wanted to abolish it. The offset tax did not get the chance to work. We know it must be given time to work because we know that Australia must maintain and expand its maritime skills base. Instead of wanting to abolish it, the government should be working to ensure it stays in place and is a success. But we know that this coalition government has little concern for workers and that it also wants to wreck coastal shipping in Australia. It wants to open Australia's coastal shipping to more overseas vessels who pay their workers low wages. This will be a disaster for Australian workers and it will be bad for safety and our maritime industry.

As my Tasmanian colleague Senator Urquhart has previously highlighted in this place, if the coalition's coastal shipping legislation is passed, two-thirds of Australian shipping workers on the Bass Strait will lose their jobs. They will be forced to join the unemployment queue, just like the workers on the Alexander Spirit. Thousands of Australian jobs are at risk in both coastal shipping and on international voyages. We cannot stand by and watch the shipping industry be destroyed by a government hell-bent on pursuing ideology over sound policy. We cannot stand by and watch workers lose their jobs. Nor can we stand by and watch innovation and development in Australia wither and die. It does not matter who the Prime Minister of this government is; they support this job-wrecking, innovation-and-development-wrecking bill. For this reason I oppose this bill.