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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2075 ..
MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):
As Mr Osborne rightly points out, the government introduced amendments to the Interpretation Act to do two things, one of which was to achieve this very goal in respect of collecting GST on fees and charges levied by government that were not exempted under section 81 of the GST act. Mr Speaker, the government has decided not to press ahead at this stage with the Interpretation Amendment Bill, but does ask the Assembly to support the GST-related side of that bill. That is why these amendments will be coming forward tonight.
I indicate that the government has not abandoned the other half of the Interpretation Amendment Bill because it raises the very issues that Mr Osborne referred to a little earlier and was having so much fun about, that is, the question of how governments actually levy fees and charges and other forms of direct and indirect taxation.
It is true that my view in 1989 was a very purist view about the need to ensure that all provisions dealing with the imposition of taxes and charges, certainly with taxes, ought to come before the Assembly. But the decision which the Federal Court of Australia made last year and which was referred to in the introduction speech for the Interpretation Amendment Bill made it clear that it is very difficult to draw a line between what is a tax on the one hand and what is a fee or charge on the other, and that if one were to be quite safe in only putting taxes to parliament and fees and charges to regulation, one probably would have to give away fees and charges altogether, at least those done in the form of regulation; you would have to put it all through parliament.
I think that is impracticable. If we want to deal with every fee or charge which may contain an element of taxation about it, that is, any fee or charge which includes more being collected than is actually necessary to pay for a particular service which is being provided, then we will have very thick legislation every year and several times during the year to deal with those fees and charges. I think we need to acknowledge that that is not a practicable way of dealing with these problems.
I have written to Mr Osborne, as chairman of the scrutiny of bills committee, and asked to meet with him, the broader committee and some government officials to talk about exactly what the Assembly wants the government to do to comply with this view. To comply with the view fully could mean a very dramatic change in legislative policy and I do not know that we are really ready to do that. But I think we need to discuss it.
I will speak to the amendments when we reach the detail stage. I thank members for what I think is support for the bill and I offer the assurance that the government will not be using the powers available in this bill, except very carefully and in circumstances that cannot be addressed in any other way but with the exercise of those powers.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
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