Page 3606 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 19 October 1993
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It has been the practice of Ms Szuty and me to read that in a much broader context. It has been our practice to read it in terms of the budget as a whole, and while we can we will continue to read it in that way.
We do have some difficulties with this Bill. The first difficulty is the concept of the widespread abuse - the subject of the question I asked today of the Chief Minister which she was not able to answer at question time. We have some information provided by the Revenue Office in a briefing they were kind enough to give us at half past seven this evening, a briefing which we appreciate and which was able to resolve some of the questions we raised. I read from one of the papers the Revenue Office provided for us:
The ACT Revenue Office does not maintain records on diesel fuel usage other than total usage. Therefore there is no data as to the volume or value of diesel fuel used for on-road or off-road consumption.
It seems to me that, when we are dealing with a situation that talks about on-road and off-road use, the concept of widespread abuse under these circumstances is difficult to ascertain. At the same time, I think it is important to emphasise that the officers who gave us the briefing indicated that they suspected that there was a loss of some $110,000 to the ACT revenue last year through abuse of the system. I still do not understand how they have been able to come up with that figure, and that is one of the concerns we have.
It is important at this stage to put into perspective the fact that whenever we deal with revenue measures we have a series of people phone our offices and say, "We object to this new revenue measure". That has been the case since I have been in the Assembly. When there is a new revenue measure that is going to affect people and that seeks to have more money coming from individuals' pockets, of course they are going to object. The construction industry has approached us; of course they are going to object. People with diesel fuel fired furnaces have approached us for exactly the same reason. I think it is important that we keep that in perspective.
At the same time, we believe that, before we support a Bill such as this, it is important to determine whether there will be further damage done in some way that is going to outweigh the benefit to the ACT. I remind members that in the previous Assembly, when a revenue measure was brought up by the Alliance Government under Mr Craig Duby as Finance Minister and he suggested a 40 per cent impost on X-rated videos, I pointed out - you will be able to find it in the Hansard - that such a high level of taxation on an industry previously untaxed would mean that we would get a minimal amount of revenue from it and that it would just have the effect of driving the industry back underground. Of course, that was the reality.
Mr Kaine: That was the idea. They challenged us to tax them, remember?
MR MOORE: The Chief Minister of the time says, "Yes, that was the idea". Indeed, if you go back to the Hansard you will see how a number of members misled this Assembly in their approach. It may be interesting to see what Mr Kaine said at the time.
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