Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (2023 Measures No. 1) Bill 2023. This is an omnibus bill presented in a series of schedules. Some of these the coalition will support. Others, particularly schedules 4 and 5, we strongly oppose. The coalition supports schedule 1, which amends the Corporations Act. It closes a loophole in the post-royal commission requirement for financial advisers to register with ASIC's Financial Advisers Register. These changes minimise the risk of inadvertent legal breaches and allow ASIC to streamline applications where a provider is authorised by more than one licensee to provide financial advice. The coalition also supports schedule 2. This gives the Australian Accounting Standards Board, the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and the Financial Reporting Council the power to develop climate and sustainable standards. However, we will be watching closely the implementation of this particular schedule.

Schedule 3 implements five recommendations from the 2020 Tax Practitioners Board review, which the coalition supports. These are to update and modernise the objective clause of the TAS Act, which is contained in recommendation 2.1; create financial independence for the TPB from the ATO, which is contained in recommendation 3.1; require that tax practitioners do not employ or use a disqualified entity without the Tax Practitioners Board's approval or enter an arrangement with a disqualified entity, which is contained in recommendation 4.6; convert to an annual registration period, which is contained in recommendation 4.7; and, finally, enable the minister to supplement the existing code of professional conduct to ensure that emerging or existing practices by tax practitioners are properly addressed, which is contained in recommendation 5.1. Each of these are important changes.

Unfortunately, though, this is where the good policy and our support for the bill end. That is because the bill makes two significant changes to taxation law that are reminiscent of former Labor leader Bill Shorten's franking credit tax. Schedule 4 amends the Income Tax Assessment Act to limit the ability of listed companies to offer franking credits in off-market share buybacks. Schedule 5 amends the Income Tax Assessment Act to limit the ability of listed companies to offer franking credits on capital-raisings. These are a franking credits tax by stealth. These are some of the taxes the Treasurer said he was proud of and pleased with before he started saying that there would be no franking credits tax.

In fact, both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer ruled out changes to franking credits before the election. Let's revisit some of those comments, for the benefit of the chamber. On 1 January 2021 the West Australian newspaper reported that the now Prime Minister said, 'We will not be taking any changes to franking credits to the next election.' It's worth repeating. On 1 January 2021 the West Australian newspaper reported that the now Prime Minister said, 'We will not be taking any changes to franking credits to the next election.' Then on 30 March the now Prime Minister said, on ABC radio, 'We won't have any changes to the franking credits regime which is there.' Again, it is worth repeating. On 30 March, on ABC radio, the now Prime Minister said, 'We won't have any changes to the franking credits regime which is there.' Then, on 15 December 2021, the now Prime Minister told Tasmanians who were listening to Tasmania Talks, 'We've made it clear that on areas like franking credits and negative gearing we won't be taking those policies to the next election.' Again, it's worth repeating: on 15 December 2021, to Tasmanians, the now Prime Minister said, then as opposition leader, wanting to get into government, 'We've made it clear that on areas like franking credits and negative gearing we won't be taking those policies to the next election.' He said that on three separate occasions. They didn't take those policies to the election. They waited until after the election, and then they broke these important election promises.

And on 17 January 2022 the now Treasurer said, 'We won't be doing franking credits.' Yet here we are today, in the Senate chamber, dealing with the government's further broken promises, which we're going to be asked to support today but which the coalition will not be supporting and Labor senators, supported by some on the crossbench, are going to endorse. They are going to endorse the Treasurer's broken promise and the Prime Minister's broken promise by supporting this particular bill. Of course, we add to these particular broken promises a growing list—a shopping list, almost—of broken promises including a promise to have cheaper mortgages, a promise to reduce electricity bills by $275 and a promise that the cost of living in our country would come down and that there would be no changes to superannuation. It is a shopping list of broken promises, and in this Senate chamber today you'll see, with your own eyes, Australian Labor Party senators, perhaps supported by the crossbench, endorsing the government's broken promises.

It's outrageous that the government can break its commitment so quickly and so easily, showing that they have little regard for the Australian people, who trusted them. That is why I will move the second reading amendment circulated in the name of Senator Hume. The government's actions are shameful, and they must be called out. The coalition will move amendments to strike out these broken promises from the bill. By doing so, we can then in good faith support some of the sensible measures within it. So, to be clear, the coalition will move amendments to strike out the broken promises contained in this bill, leaving a bill that we can in good faith support. If the government doesn't accept the coalition's amendments, we will not be supporting the bill. And even if the government does intend to keep its promises, the coalition will at least continue to hold it to account.

In a cost-of-living crisis, which everyone now recognises that we have, one of Labor's principal priorities seems to continue to be to come after the money of ordinary Australians. And we're not talking about the richest Australians, either. Hitting franking credits will target retirees, mum-and-dad investors who have saved and invested to make themselves independent, to make themselves a little bit more financially secure. We are under no illusions about that. This will significantly inhibit the ability of those older Australians—retirees, mum-and-dad investors—to sustain themselves, let alone grow, as the Australian economy slows under Labor's economic mismanagement.

The coalition will, as I said before, move amendments to remove these two schedules, because we're here to support ordinary Australian taxpayers and we oppose the negative impact of Labor's taxes, and we commend those amendments to the chamber. I ask particularly those senators on the crossbench, who sit over here, to consider the words from the Prime Minister and the Treasurer that I've quoted, and their historical commitments not to make these changes to the law. I ask them to ask themselves, 'Can I allow this government to get away with such breathtaking trickery and political cynicism?' Imagine: a leader of the opposition, desperate to become Prime Minister, who on three occasions, two of them in my home state of Western Australia, said he would not change these laws; a Treasurer who said when he became the Treasurer he would not change these laws. Today in the Senate chamber the government is breaking those promises, in black and white. It has brought before the Senate a bill which breaks those promises. We will not allow it to break its promises. Breaking those promises will hurt ordinary Australians, retirees, and mum and dad investors.

Today, Mr Acting Deputy President, as we debate this bill, pay attention to that end of the chamber and see whether or not the crossbench will endorse the government's decision to break its own promises. We call on members of the crossbench to support the coalition's amendments in Committee of the Whole so that these disingenuous, toxic schedules can be removed from the bill and the sensible elements of the bill can progress through the parliament. I move:

Omit all words after "That", substitute:

"(a) the Senate notes that:

(i) the now Prime Minister said in May 2022: "We've said we have no intention to make any super changes.",

(ii) the now Treasurer said in April 2022: "We've made it very clear Kieran, that we don't have any proposals for tax increases...", and

(iii) since these statements the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have announced a doubling of taxes on superannuation; and

(b) further consideration of the bill be postponed until the Minister representing the Prime Minister tables a letter from the Prime Minister that includes the following elements:

(i) a commitment to dump his new doubling of super taxes,

(ii) a commitment to never tax unrealised capital gains, and

(iii) an apology for breaking his promises to the Australian people".