Page 3752 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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With respect, Madam Speaker, there is no legal basis on which that might occur. I suggest that, the first time the New South Wales State revenue commissioner seeks to disqualify a person from holding a permit on the basis that they have used some or all of their fuel in the ACT, he could expect to be challenged in the court, and I dare say that he would probably find that he would have to back down. Where will the ACT's prevention of avoidance scheme be then?
Madam Speaker, there is another question to be resolved in this matter. Let us assume that the Government can somehow insulate people from the ACT crossing the border, buying their fuel and bringing it across to the ACT. Maybe guards can be placed at the border or something of that kind - who knows? The question remains: Why can an ACT operator, a business in the ACT, not move their business to New South Wales and save tens of thousands of dollars a year in diesel fuel franchise fees?
Let us take the example we have already posited. I am not making this up. A major business in the ACT, Corkhill Bros, has said publicly that they intend to move their business to New South Wales in the event that this diesel fuel franchise exemption scheme is changed. Corkhill Bros operate, as members know, a business which recycles and sells soil, bark chips and things of that kind. They operate their earthmoving machines on a single site. They do not have to move them around; they are on a single site. If that site was in New South Wales customers, of course, would have to go from the ACT to New South Wales, purchase their bark chips, soil or whatever and then travel back into the ACT.
People from the ACT already buy lots of products from New South Wales. They do not pay ACT taxes; they pay New South Wales taxes. If I buy a pint of milk in New South Wales I pay New South Wales taxes. If I buy a soft drink in New South Wales I pay New South Wales taxes. If Corkhill Bros relocate to New South Wales and ACT people cross the border and buy bark chips in New South Wales they will be paying New South Wales taxes, not ACT taxes.
Mr Moore: If they move to New South Wales somebody else will take their place.
MR HUMPHRIES: With respect, it is not very far to go to Queanbeyan. If a major body like Corkhills is operating in Queanbeyan you can certainly go over there and buy your goods there.
Mr Lamont: What you do not understand is that the cost of travelling to Queanbeyan outweighs any benefits that you gain.
MR HUMPHRIES: From Fyshwick, I think not, Madam Speaker.
Mr Lamont: He talked about a truck with a backhoe on the back. It is 130,000 backhoes.
MR HUMPHRIES: You are moving the backhoes only once - to go from Hume to New South Wales. Madam Speaker, Mr Lamont does not have the faintest idea of what is going on here. The fact of life is that once Corkhills move they will stay there; they will not move around again. They will do their business in New South Wales. People will come to them to buy the goods in New South Wales. That is what will happen under this scheme.
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