Page 2112 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 8 May 2012
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opposite—opposition for opposition’s sake. Here we are again, a new issue, but the same carping negativity from the opposition.
MR HARGREAVES: Supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Hargreaves.
MR HARGREAVES: Minister, are there any alternative courses the government could take?
MR BARR: Of course there are always a variety of policy alternatives. The head-in-the-sand approach that you could adopt, and that seems to be the preferred method of those opposite, is to find a minute process argument—anything to avoid talking about the substance of the public policy issue before the Assembly and before the community. That is what we saw yesterday in the initial response by the shadow treasurer. It was all about process and nothing much about the actual substance. That is one alternative policy approach. That certainly is an alternative policy approach.
The government’s view is that, in order to achieve a fairer, simpler and more efficient tax system, reform is necessary. It is the government’s view, supported by the overwhelming majority of stakeholders in relation to tax reform, that this reform will be a long-term process but that work needs to commence now. The processes that the government has put in place by way of a number of stakeholder roundtables over the next few months and the possibility of some further work at the national level and engagement with other states and territories, particularly around the area of harmonisation in payroll tax, for example, that we know other governments are committed to—the Prime Minister has called an economic forum for June. The states and territories have been invited to attend. We certainly look forward to some further progress on some of the important areas of tax reform that not only this jurisdiction faces but the nation faces.
The issues that we confront in the ACT are similar to those of other jurisdictions, but we are better placed than any other jurisdiction to begin a significant reform process.
MR SMYTH: Supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: Treasurer, why was the chair of the panel, former Treasurer Mr Quinlan, not afforded the courtesy of presenting his report at the media conference yesterday and instead being just not invited or locked out of the press conference?
MR BARR: That was certainly not the case. I met and spoke with Mr Quinlan in the lead-up to the release of the government response to the review and indicated the time frame and how we would go about that release. Mr Quinlan was obviously actively involved in discussion of his recommendations yesterday. He appeared in a number of different media outlets, but yesterday was about releasing the government’s response.
Opposition members interjecting—
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