PAYROLL TAX

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (15:00): My question is to the Treasurer. Did the Treasurer instruct Treasury to delay the introduction of the payroll tax exemption for apprentices and trainees until at least 1 January 2011 and, if not, who did? The government promised during the election campaign to match the Liberal promise to amend the Payroll Tax Act to exempt wages of trainees and apprentices from payroll tax as from 1 July 2010. The Commissioner of Taxation sent out a notice on 5 July advising businesses that the government had advised him that the parliament had been too busy to introduce the relevant legislation and that the rebates would be postponed until at least 1 January 2011.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Federal/State Relations, Minister for Defence Industries) (15:01): I love the way the Liberals say that we were copying their payroll tax cuts. We are a government of payroll tax cuts—not members opposite: this government. Before answering that question, I just want to clarify this issue of interest payments, because I am—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker. It is not in order for the Treasurer to ask himself the questions. We ask the questions and he is to answer the questions. If he wants to make a ministerial statement after question time, he can seek the leave of the house.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I was offering members some more information, but if they do not want it, fine; I will do it at the end of question time.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Okay. Well, I just wanted to clarify some statements, and if you would rather I do it at the end of question time—

Mr Williams: I'd rather you do it at the end of question time.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Okay, all right, fine.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer will do it after question time.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: That is fine. A bloke is trying to be helpful and he gets into strife with this lot!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Listen to the Treasurer's reply.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The government confirmed post the election—I think sometime in April, from memory—that a number of our election promises were reconfirmed by cabinet, and the payroll tax was one of them. I prefer, when implementing payroll tax cuts, to do it legislatively, and I was not in that position. We had some issues with one of the employer bodies about their interpretation—or their ask, I should say—of what would be the scope of the tax cut. Because we are not in a position to get it legislatively implemented by 1 July, I wanted to defer it to 1 January 2011.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Well, it is a minimal saving to the budget.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Madam Speaker, we have delivered a budget. We have delivered tax cut after tax cut after tax cut. We have brought our payroll tax rates down to be some of the most competitive in the nation. I prefer a legislated approach to tax cuts. We had not enough time to get that done by 1 July. In my absence, the acting treasurer had another view that we should do it administratively. That was an option open to me.

The Hon. I.F. Evans: Did he instruct Treasury?

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I advised Treasury that I wanted it deferred until 1 January 2011.

The Hon. I.F. Evans interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: That was my decision as Treasurer, because we had not been able to have the legislation in place. The acting treasurer was of a different view, and I was overseas, and he quite within his powers in a regulatory move made it applicable—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —from 1 July, and I am quite relaxed about that.