Page 3789 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 24 August 2010
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would squeeze investors until they bled but not until they died”. Treasurer, why is there no-one with business and investment expertise on this tax review panel?
MS GALLAGHER: The campaign of bagging the taxation review from the Liberals continues. The government is very pleased with the panel that we have put together. It does not represent every industry. We did look—
Mr Coe: We just thought Mick Gentleman would have done a better job.
MS GALLAGHER: Actually, we did look to see if there were any ex-Liberals to put on it, but there was not anyone of quality. That was the problem. We had a look to see what Liberals were sitting around. They did not even make it to the “please consider” stage. We did put in a few hurdles that you had to jump over. You had to be sane. You had to be prepared to turn up and do the work. There were a few of those lower level criteria that we put in place first. Then we considered those that met the other criteria. Don’t worry: we did consider the Liberals; you just did not meet the test. And we did look at a different range of models to put in place for the taxation review before we finalised this three-person panel. We could have broadened out and represented every industry, and I did look at that. The difficulties I anticipated from a model which sought to represent every industry would be that, because every different grouping within the community does not necessarily agree with particular taxes and charges, depending on the industry they represent, meeting—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Stop the clocks. Members, whilst there was clearly some humour around the sallies, I think the Treasurer has moved into answering the actual question. Can we please listen to her.
MS GALLAGHER: We did look at whether a more representative model would be appropriate, but some of the challenges that were identified were that we doubted whether agreement would be reached, in a sense, on a final report. So the option we have intended to go with—you will notice that there is not anyone representing any industry on that panel—is that the panel will sit there as the overarching top three. They will commission pieces of work, depending on submissions that are put to them from industry and other interested people, including government—and maybe the opposition might participate at that stage. Then, once a draft report is released, it will go out to industry groups for comment. I think that we have covered it off as best we can with an issue like taxation reform, which is difficult for everybody to reach consensus on.
MRS DUNNE: A supplementary question, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, why have you appointed as head of the tax review a person who has such a bias against the investment community in the ACT?
MS GALLAGHER: Mr Quinlan does not. I think the quote that the Liberals keep pulling out really does go to the depth of Mr Quinlan’s understanding of the need and
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