Page 178 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 February 1990
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Other changes are proposed in the Bills. However, these merely remove redundant provisions and make technical amendments. I commend the Bills to members.
MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (10.57): Mr Speaker, the essence of the Taxation (Administration) (Amendment) Bill and the Rates and Land Tax (Amendment) Bill is that they will facilitate the general administration of taxation and municipal rating laws by the Commissioner for ACT Revenue. Principally, the amendments are to make the Commissioner responsible under the Rates and Land Tax Act for general administrative matters which are of a similar nature to administrative functions which the Commissioner already performs in respect of other taxation laws.
The Bills were previously introduced into the Legislative Assembly by the Follett Government and the Alliance Government accepts and supports them, as does the rest of the Assembly. I look forward to their being passed.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (10.58): Like the last Bill, these two Bills were introduced by me, and obviously we will not oppose them. They are all, indeed, minor matters. But, Mr Speaker, I make the observation that if we are to be changing standing orders or in other ways making changes to my rights as a member here, it would be only common courtesy for me to be at least advised beforehand, if not actually consulted on the matter.
MR KAINE (Treasurer) (10.58): Mr Speaker, I will comment briefly on these two Bills and acknowledge the fact that they were introduced by Ms Follett when she was the Chief Minister and Treasurer. I note that this Government, as Mr Duby has said, has taken up these Bills in the form in which they were presented and is adopting them. That is a sensible thing to do, and it is consistent with the philosophy of the Government, that there should be equity in the assessing and the collection of taxes, that there should be an effective means of performing that assessment and the collection of taxes, and that the interests of the community at large should be taken into account in the way in which these things are done.
As part of our budgetary objectives over the next couple of years, we will be aiming to maximise our revenues. That means that we have to make sure that the ACT Administration is properly organised and has the resources to carry out the proper assessment of rates and taxes of all kinds, not only the kinds of taxes that are envisaged in this Bill. We have to make sure that it has the ability and the resources, first of all, to do the assessment, and then, where a tax or a charge of any kind has been assessed as being payable, that the machinery is in place and that it has the capacity to collect that tax so that the burden falls where it should and there is no avoidance or evasion of such taxes.
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