Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

Labor will not oppose this amendment, but this is very embarrassing for the government and, particularly, for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Yet again it appears that the government has made an announcement, then discovered they'd forgotten to do some pretty important consultation with professionals responsible for an important accountability message. I can see you're agreeing with me, Leader. It seems they forgot to tell the accounting profession that they would be responsible for ensuring the emergency IR powers were legitimately used and that they would provide a certificate to testify that the employer was suffering a 10 per cent turnover decline.

The legislation, as it stands, states that a business which employs more than 15 people would have to obtain a certificate from an eligible financial service provider, which means either a registered company auditor or a registered tax agent, a BAS agent, a tax financial adviser or a qualified accountant. The government has just found out that this doesn't sit well with the accounting profession. How does someone who is not a registered tax agent or a BAS agent calculate turnover if they are not qualified or even, possibly, legally able to do so? These amendments show that they won't. Second, the reference in the bill to an eligible financial service provider stating their opinion that the employer has satisfied a 10 per cent decline in turnover test for the designated quarter applicable to the specified time is also highly problematic. The phrase 'in the opinion' has particular meaning and it is suggested that this would entail the conduct of an audit. This, of course, would add substantial cost and time, but to do otherwise would increase their risk exposure. Again, we have an amendment dealing with that concern.

It's better late than never, but what is actually quite unbelievable is that, while the government has listened and responded to the concerns of the accountancy profession—whom they forgot to consult with prior to introducing this bill and who are concerned that they may be legally impacted—the government has deliberately chosen to reject Labor's amendments which would ensure low-paid workers in this country aren't forced to have their take-home pay cut at the same time as their employer's business is recovering. This says everything about the government—absolutely everything.

Question agreed to.