Remarks by the Hon Rob Oakeshott MP

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MICHAEL PASCOE:

Okay. Could we grab a seat please and we will get going on our first segment. Let's go. This section is business tax. Now, this is a bit of a basic comment. Obviously based on the submissions we've gone for a group of people who have made commentary around company tax. You will see in the six sessions we have - so if your burning passion is environmental tax, would you mind leaving that for the environmental session this afternoon, otherwise it will turn into a complete shambles. This is company tax. In particular, the sort of areas that might get us going, obviously lowering the company tax rate, supporting change, equity financing, a really important one for many of us here, small business, the great compliance issue, of course, and so on, and then finally, of course, much at Mr Swan's heart, what concessions can be wound back to fund tax reform. Could we try and be broad-ranging around the topic in this session.

MICHAEL PASCOE:

Welcome back. Before we hop into the state session per se, I would like to ask the member for Lyne to come to the stage, Bob Oakeshott. He has played a major role in giving us all this opportunity.

ROBERT OAKESHOTT:

Thanks. As Australians we can sit in the front bar of any pub and whinge about tax or we can get in here, pull together the best and greatest and have a go about modernising the tax system. I thank you all for coming. I also acknowledge ministers who are here, MPs, and in particular cross-bench colleagues who find their presence en mass at the back show a real intent to see sensible and sustainable tax reform for Australia.

I also thank everyone present for attending to impress government that the hard decisions is good policy and good politics. The tax government can be improved for greater integrity of our tax base and that fewer taxes in Australia is highly desirable for the vast majority of Australians. I also want to take the opportunity to thank the people who took the time to attend forums at Port Macquarie, such as the Tax Institute for hosting pre-event forums as well. I thank those who made valuable submissions and those in the media who have shown interest in covering this.

As we try and build momentum for change for the next round of tax and transfer reform, all of the above contributions matter. We now have two days together to work through much of this thinking and from this I encourage our minds to now shift to one word, that word being "outcomes". Outcomes, outcomes, outcomes. Short and long-term outcomes, state and federal outcomes, labour and liberal outcomes, for-profit and not-for-profit outcomes. Whatever does your biscuit, the key is outcomes. From all that I have seen, read and heard so far we have some known problems and challenges facing Australia. By leaving them unaddressed we will impact our very special standard of living into the future.

As one MP, from all I have seen, read and heard so far, the answers to these known problems are pretty clear. As identified two years ago in the comprehensive work done by the Australia's Future Tax System Report and committee, what to date has been missing and is our great challenge is getting these known problems with known answers turned into outcomes. The blocks to outcomes are primarily two-fold.

Firstly, we have seven crowns in Australia that seem culturally reluctant to work together, meaning complexity and inefficiency, seven systems increasingly and independently bear down on all of us. We are still a long way from a Commonwealth working in the interests of the common wealth. To address this today's forum can play a critical role in starting to crack heads of state together to get these seven crowns working more closely together and to have a process out of this Tax Forum that is a road map for modernising our system and reducing the overall number of taxes in Australia today.

The other block to outcomes is the acceptance in Australia of an overly adversarial over-bipartisan environment. Again to address this, today's forum and the process out of it can play a critical role in making the nation interest more important than any one partisan interest. It is disappointing, for example, that the potential next government is not here today. They should be, but at the same time we should be buoyed by the comments that they welcome in independent office of tax simplification. I think in their absence they have either by accident or design just put the first offer of this forum on the table for government to accept and I will be doing what I can to see what happens.

This independent office could stand-alone, could be part of the productivity commission or a similar body and it must include and engage the states. It may have an ability to tie or withhold grants for no or slow reform so we all don't get stung by Commonwealth state gains again and it could be included as an amendment to the GST agreement. The challenge, though, is now for the government to respond to this tax simplification offer and I was hoping they may have done so as we reached quarter time at this forum. If nothing else this process and roadmap out of the Tax Forum is the one big idea we need to land for this gathering to be worthwhile. It should involve fewer taxes, particularly now we have some bipartisanship on this topic.

GST, mining, carbon and alcohol taxes. I assure all that the Parliament itself has not ruled out discussing any of these and quite obviously all cast a shadow over any considerations out of these two days. I welcome further discussions from all comers about each of these and how they relate to the overall modernisation of our tax and transfer system. I look forward to alcohol Tax Forums to continue, and alcohol reform is a sensible and important discussion we need to have.

As well and somewhat ironically the taboo taxes of these two days should not be the only ones we end up talking about. I've seen many of the submissions, many ideas that should be on the agenda and deserve consideration in their own right. How business taxation and our losses and equity are treated are really important as a set of reforms as just one example. How we finally deal with insurance taxes and stamp duties and payroll taxes is another.

We all, I'm sure, have personal favourites for a modern tax system. At my end if education and innovation are the known and critical feature of the Australian economy for the next 50 years, we need this to be much better reflected in our tax and transfer system. Our education system to engage with the business community of Australia is important when it is an American philanthropist that gives more to Australian universities than any one Australian citizen.

When our story is a tangled web of ... ag levies for research all under threat from declining public funding, these two areas of education and innovation/research need enormous public policy and tax consideration if we are properly dealing with the known threats to Australia's standard of living in the future.

These are my personal views and I'm sure everyone has their own take on a modern tax system and how it should define us. I as one MP will do what I can to get your story told and advocate where I can and where it is about the national interest.

To conclude, I believe we need a sense of aggression and urgency in modernising our tax and transfer system, no matter how unpopular certain decisions might have to be. We owe it to all our kids not to shirk our known responsibilities of today. It would be un-Australian, if my view, if we did.

What I'm chasing from these two days and what I hope what all of us can get out of it, is one, a roadmap and tax reform for the next decade which has fewer taxes and modernisation at its core. Two, a push for minimisation and harmonisation and end of stamp duties, and for Australia to demand government work on all three immediately. Three, a push for offsets, concessions and complexities and interpretations of tax l
aw to be addressed immediately to protect the integrity of the entire system and to make for greater efficiency. Four, personally for education and innovation to receive even greater status within the tax and transfer systems to encourage both as the meal ticket for the best possible standard of living for all Australians overcoming 50 years, and five, for a government to actually implement as compared to talking about their good thoughts on business losses and equity financing.

Essentially, what I am seeking is outcomes, at least five of them, on behalf of all Australians' future standard of living. It is surely not too much to ask. Thank you for attending and let's get to work.