Page 2157 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 21 June 2011
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educational exemption provided for employers taking on apprentices or providing other staff training. The Greens, of course, very much support these measures.
The minister in her speech said this was a good example of a national process achieving a commonsense outcome and it should be noted that we are replicating an act that has been in place in New South Wales and Victoria for around four years. Apart from the obvious advantage of having seen how these acts have worked in a general sense, harmonising the scheme with other Australian jurisdictions also means we can incorporate rulings and lessons from the application of the provisions in other jurisdictions and maximise the effectiveness of the scheme.
One minor issue that should be noted is that there is what is perhaps best described as a style difference in the drafting of the model act and what we would do here in the ACT. This relates to the express inclusion of the standard to which decision makers must be satisfied of or believe that particular facts exist. I think it is worth noting that the Assembly does not intend to create a distinction between these provisions; rather, we have decided to leave the model provisions to ensure the application of rulings that have been made on those provisions in other jurisdictions is also applicable here in the ACT. The Greens will support this bill.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Treasurer) (7.48), in reply: The Payroll Tax Bill is a complete rewrite of the ACT’s Payroll Tax Act. The new act harmonises as far as possible the structure, definitions and provisions of the act with the equivalent payroll legislation in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
This government is committed to achieving greater legislative and administrative harmony wherever possible, to help reduce the compliance burden on business. Previous amendments in 2007 harmonised areas such as motor vehicle and accommodation allowance exemptions, fringe benefits, grouping provisions and exemptions for work performed in another country.
Consistency in payroll tax legislation and administration is particularly important to employers operating across a number of jurisdictions. The new harmonised structure, definitions and administration will assist employers and their advisers to understand and comply with their payroll tax obligations in the ACT.
The ACT, like other jurisdictions, has retained control over rates, thresholds and policy differences where they relate to the specific needs of the territory and its business. Where there are ACT policy differences, these are retained and provided for in the schedules to the new payroll tax legislation. The ACT’s payroll tax rate and generous tax-free threshold—currently the highest in Australia at $1.5 million—are not altered under the new payroll tax legislation.
As part of the harmonisation of payroll tax provisions across Australia, all jurisdictions are aligned in exempting, for payroll tax purposes, maternity leave wages of 14 weeks. The ACT government has taken this further to exempt not only wages paid to an employee for maternity or adoption leave but also wages paid to primary carers such as a domestic partner or grandparent of the child.
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