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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1334 ..

MR WHITECROSS: I thought we were doing the rates legislation today.

Mr Humphries: This is not fair. You have not told us that you want to do this.

Ms McRae: There is a motion before the house, Mr Speaker. Why do you not put the motion, for goodness sake?

MR SPEAKER: I shall have to put the question, but the Assembly knows that if it does not wish to adjourn the debate it can vote against the motion.

Question resolved in the negative.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Whitecross, you are to resume the debate.

MR WHITECROSS: Yes, sure; I do not mind resuming it, Mr Speaker. I was just extending a courtesy to some of my colleagues.

Mr Humphries: They have not extended any courtesy to us, Mr Whitecross.

MR WHITECROSS: I was not the one who was complaining, so I did not think I had to.

Mr Speaker, this Debits Tax Bill provides for a new Territory tax, a bank account debits tax. It was announced in last year's budget to save Mrs Carnell some grief this year, even though it will not come into effect until 1 July. The legislation was tabled only in the last sitting period. On Tuesday the Treasurer felt able to say that her budget contained no new taxes, even though new tax measures are an integral part of the funding of this year's budget.

There is no doubt, Mr Speaker, that Mrs Carnell is relying on these tax changes to fund her budget. The Bill proposes a new bank account debits tax, and this measure will be introduced at the same time as the current financial institutions duty is reduced from 0.1 per cent to 0.06 per cent on deposits in financial institutions. The Government estimates in its explanatory memorandum that this is going to raise an additional $14.15m, I think, which would be offset by a reduction in taxes relating to the financial institutions duty of some $8.5m, yielding a net result of something in the order of $6m. The Government also proposes to provide in the legislation for rebates for pensioners who are disadvantaged by this change in arrangements, and I want to make some comments in relation to that in a moment.

Returning to the substance of the Bill, this will bring the ACT into line with other States and the Northern Territory which impose a debits tax on chequing accounts or accounts linked to chequing facilities. This will occur not only when a cheque is written but also when a withdrawal is made from an account with chequing facilities. Any account with a cheque facility will be liable for the new tax, regardless of whether it is a cash withdrawal or a deposit. A tax of 30c per transaction will be payable on withdrawals of up to $100. This means that this new tax is unfair for those who withdraw only small amounts or have only small amounts to withdraw. It is unfair, for example, for parents who have to send their children to school with money. In such an instance a cheque is better than cash.

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