Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Could you just be a little bit more specific in terms of whether this is taxation privileges? Is it legal privileges? Whenever I hear the term 'multilateral agreements'—my experience with multilateral agreements is in regard to tax treaties and, in particular, sovereign wealth funds, whereby we have an agreement that sovereign wealth funds who invest in Australia don't have to pay tax here, and likewise our sovereign wealth funds who invest overseas don't have to pay tax over there. To me, that's not in the national interest at all, because we erode our tax base when we do that.

What you've just read back to me then was basically reading—I've asked for the substance of the matter here. Have we got particular organisations that are going to be immune from taxation, from the normal legal requirements of any citizen? I fail to see why, in order to be a part of the global community, we have to give these organisations, whoever they may be, privileges that aren't available to other Australian citizens. So, as I said, what is the purpose of this? Why is this needed now, when it's never been needed in the last 110 or 120 years of federation?