Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to make a contribution on the Treasury Laws Amendment (2022 Measures No. 1) Bill 2022. I've been in this place for a while but I remember that when I first got here the technical language of all this could be overwhelming. We've got lots of new senators in the place, and they're going to try to come up to speed with things quickly. And we have people here in the chamber listening; it's a pleasure to see fellow citizens come and see democracy in action. When we say we've got a TLAB, which is the short-hand, people go: 'What on earth is that? Why does this even matter?' Sadly, as a Labor politician in the government, I would say there's been an increase in cynicism in the community over the nine years of the previous government over whether the government is actually listening to them and will do what they require it to do.

I am very pleased today to make my contribution to this debate about legislation that the opposition have indicated they are going to support. They had a little bit of a whinge about some bits in it but that's normal for this place—sometimes that's helpful, sometimes not so. That's where we are: we're in the middle of a debate about something that's going to change.

If you are one of those people who thinks politics doesn't affect you and you can't make a change, you can't have an impact and it'll all just happen with or without you, I want to use this opportunity to indicate why this bill is really important. Some of you might be overwhelmed by the number of disasters that have struck this country in recent times. It's overwhelming when you look at the television and the images that come through of disasters that just seem to be coming one after the other. This particular piece of legislation deals with one of those major events that affected the community in Western Australia: Cyclone Seroja.

I've got an article here that made the BBC news but it was also covered by our ABC. This is some of the sense of what happened with Cyclone Seroja. It tore through the Western Australian town of Northampton:

… one of the school principals stayed on the telephone to the local priest as the house around the cleric fell apart.

Finally, Father Larry Rodillas got out from under his kitchen table and ran for his life to the school next door, sheltering in a classroom until the category-three storm had passed the next morning.

That's just one story of one incident that happened as a consequence of that storm. You can imagine families left without homes—incredible disaster. Everything that people had worked for is all of a sudden all gone. When the storm blows out, and the deafening silence returns, people have to try and pick up the pieces of their life. That article was an ABC article by ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt, by Cecile O'Connor. I'm sure the power of recording that story and putting it on the public record, and the advocacy of the people from the region to parliamentarians, helps make these processes we undertake here very important. Those stories of what's going on do matter.

The actual description the BBC has is that Cyclone Seroja ripped across a 1,000-kilometre stretch of Western Australia. Can you imagine how many people that is? It's not just houses. Often, if we hear this, as people who live in cities or in regional towns, we think about the housing, but the impact is massive on the agricultural sector and indeed the mining sector. Once you've had things ripped up and thrown around, you've got to replace them and try and make things work. It's very, very difficult for the entire community and the economy of that entire community. Kalbarri resident Debbie Major said the storm, which hit the resort town around 7 pm, raged through the night and was 'absolutely terrifying'.

You just thought, this is it. I would have thought that when we opened the door, that there would be nothing around us except that roof.

We are a small town. Half of it has been flattened.

The problem that then arises is how quickly a government can respond. In my home state of New South Wales, we've seen very, very different models of how governments choose to respond to the crises that exist. We all saw the images of Lismore, just overwhelmed, and we saw a politically timed non-show by the former Prime Minister—an abandonment of that community. Leading figures in the community who had some wealth on their side, including some of our foremost entertainers and performers, brought in their own private helicopters to winch people off roofs. That's one way a government can choose—not to respond to the reality of its citizens. Then there's the other way, in which I want to applaud the efforts of my newly minted minister, Murray Watt, who's from the great state of Queensland. Of course, we know that there are huge problems with insurance because of all these disasters in the northern part of our country. That problem has been around for the entire time of the previous government and has not been dealt with. So what can we do and what is this legislation doing today to help the people of Kalbarri and the people of the Mid West in Western Australia? What are we going to do?

Currently, the law as it stands says that grants provided under category C of the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018 to small business and primary producers with a farm enterprise of any size that were affected by Cyclone Seroja are assessable as income for income tax purposes. Let's break that down. You're running a business. You got smashed by the cyclone. You do get some support from the government, and it's going to be taxed. That makes life very tricky. In addition to the physical tumult, there's a huge emotional burden, and some people just pick up sticks and move. The ones who stay, the ones who keep their businesses going, the ones who keep showing up to work, are people we need to support. We need to make it as easy as possible for them to get on and do what they do best. What we are going to do—and I am hopeful that this legislation will pass this place—is this. The new law says that grants provided under category C of the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018 to small businesses and primary producers with a farm enterprise of any size that were affected by Cyclone Seroja are non-assessable and non-exempt income for income tax purposes, meaning that they are not subject to income tax.

That matters. It matters because it simplifies the way in which a tax return will be prepared for those businesses and those individuals, and I think it also shows to people who have survived Cyclone Seroja that a government can show goodwill and support them in what they do. We all pay our income taxes, and we all get the benefit of that in the services that are provided, the roads that we drive on and all the infrastructure that's there, but I don't think any fair minded Australian wants to see tax coming from somebody who's suffered incredible damage—physically, financially and emotionally—in a disaster.

That's what the very first schedule of this bill will do. There are four sections to the bill, and in the time that I have remaining—we only have limited time to make a contribution—I might go to one that I think will be of great interest to people right at this moment.

Many Australians will be watching, with great joy, the incredible success of our sporting people at the Commonwealth Games over in Birmingham. There have been remarkable performances from individuals and there has been remarkable support from the whole organisation that wraps around it. From the period of 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2028, there are implications for FIFA and its Australian subsidiary from income and withholding tax with regard to the FIFA Women's World Cup. When things aren't organised sufficiently, sometimes there is a cost. The role of government is to make sure that great organisations like FIFA can do what they need to do, can operate in a way that allows us to be successful, and to enable sporting diplomacy. There are amazing people who will be travelling to the country for FIFA, and we want to make sure that it's the best possible experience. For the successful delivery of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, we know that we'll have the benefit of enhancing Australia's reputation as a host of major international sporting events if we can get it right, and it stimulates the other sections of our economy as well. We also want to promote women's sport in a very authentic way. We've had incredible success with our team, so we want to make sure that we support them.

The current uncertainty that exists about the tax arrangements is currently impacting the capacity of the organisers of the FIFA Women's World Cup. They're having trouble putting in place all the arrangements that they need, particularly in relation to a part that faces into the community, which is ticket sales. Those ticket scales for this phenomenal event—the FIFA Women's World Cup, which is going to be a privilege for us to host—need to be ready to be able to advance with ticket sales from September 2022. The third schedule of this bill will be fixing up that problem for the FIFA Women's World Cup to make sure that we can provide the best and most seamless possible opportunity for that organisation to do their job.

The other two schedules deal with very, very important matters, and I'll probably be able to speak only to schedule 2 in the time that is left. It's about superannuation. If you're following, we've got whole lot of different bits of tax law that are getting slightly amended. Schedule 2 relates to transitional provisions relating to the repeal of Superannuation (Resolution of Complaints) Act 1993. People will be aware that in 2017 the government agreed to the recommendations of a very important review—the Ramsay review—to establish the Australian Financial Complaints Authority to replace the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal. Superannuation is a Labor legacy. It's a fantastic asset for our country to have trillions of dollars in funds enabling people to plan for their retirement, to anticipate that they can live a great retirement with dignity, and having the benefit of that saving and its multiplying through investment to a point where they have a really great nest egg at the end of their lives. But sometimes there can be debate between a provider and somebody who has that superannuation, and they need somewhere to go. That is a very important part of what this particular schedule is going to do.

We know that the SCT stopped operating on 31 December 2020. At that time they had six remaining cases that they successfully transferred to the new body, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal finally closed on 5 March this year. What we're seeking to do with the amendments embedded in schedule 2 of this bill is ensure that the necessary administrative arrangements are in place. The Australian Securities Investment Commission, much more commonly known as ASIC—I note that there were comments on the radio from ASIC this morning about budgeting in this climate—talk to us about money, and they are going to have a role in managing people's complaints about superannuation. They need to undertake the ongoing management of those Superannuation Complaints Tribunal records. They will also take over managing any outstanding cases in the Federal Court, and they will be appropriately remitted back to AFCA.

What's good about this is it's an administrative change, in the background, to make sure that records will be kept and the people who need to do the job are authorised to do the job. The great thing by doing that and putting it in this legislation, doing the job of being a government, taking the careful work seriously, is we will make sure, by this action and this schedule, that complainants will benefit from it, they will not be adversely affected, and that AFCA is clearly now the primary external dispute resolution body responsible for handling superannuation related companies, and that it is appropriately resourced to resolve any outstanding Superannuation Complaints Tribunal matters.

That is the business of government that's going on in the chamber today, and I'm pleased to have been able to make a contribution on the Treasury laws amendment bill.