Bills

Land Tax (Discretionary Trusts) Amendment Bill

Committee Stage

In committee (resumed on motion).

Clause 3.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I thank honourable members. Parliamentary counsel has now drafted a compromise position, which I will move at the appropriate time, when you call me, Mr Chairman, to do so.

Can I just briefly explain, without having to revisit—in the interests of hopefully getting us all home at a reasonable hour tonight—the debate has essentially been that the government's preferred position was giving this flexibility for 12 months, which was going to be June 2022. The Labor Party's amendment was to give it for three months, which was September of this year. The Hon. Mr Pangallo came up with a sensible suggestion, which we are now moving, which is a compromise, which is six months, which is 31 December.

So the amendment has been circulated in my name, and when we come to move that particular amendment it will be simply to provide the compromise position of a six-month option as opposed to either the 12 months, which the government wanted, or the three months. We think it is a sensible compromise, and I think everyone understands the position. To do so we would need to either defeat the Hon. Mr Maher's amendment or have him withdraw the amendment and then vote for the compromise position, which is the six-month amendment.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Thank you to the Treasurer for the compromise position. We will support it, of course, and my honourable colleagues will give their position on it. As I indicated, this whole thing has been a dog's breakfast. We certainly do not want to inflict any more unnecessary pain on taxpayers. I again thank the Treasurer for giving me assurances in relation to payment plans that taxpayers will undoubtedly be asking for when they start to get their bills, and I hope that the commissioner, when she views and assesses these repayment plans, shows some leniency and accords these taxpayers some generous terms for the repayments at zero interest and also with no penalties.

I hope she does not just say, 'I'll give you three months.' I hope she is far more generous than that, and I hope that is the intent of the comments that were made by the Treasurer today, that the repayment terms will be generous, because I am assured by many, from people within the industry—accountants and tax lawyers—that there will be significant tax bills that will need to be met. With that, I await the next stage of the debate.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: On behalf of the Greens, I rise to speak in favour of this compromise. We had been supportive of the Labor amendment of three months, but this six months seems like an okay outcome. Everybody will leave slightly unhappy, and sometimes that is not always a bad thing. If you can reach a compromise, then we are open to doing that. In this circumstance, it sounds like something that is going to be workable for all parties. In that spirit, we are happy to support this.

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY: For the record, I indicate that I will be supporting the compromise position.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Unsurprisingly, we prefer our position but, reading what people have said, I will not be proceeding and formally seek to withdraw our amendment, although I do not know what the procedure is. We will be supporting the position others have put. I make it clear and put on the record that we prefer three months, but having heard the contributions we recognise that is not possible.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I move:

Amendment No. 1 [Treasurer-1]—

Clause 3, page 2, line 11 and 12 [clause 3(1)]—Delete subclause (1) and insert:

(1) Section 13A(1)—delete '30 June 2021' and substitute:

31 December 2021

Amendment carried.

The CHAIR: Clause 3 being a money clause, no question will be put on the clause.

Schedule and title passed.

Bill reported with amendment.

Third Reading

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (17:37): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.