21 June 2000

1650  DR THEOPHANOUS: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs—

(1) Has Australia previously played a prominent role in UN Social Development Conferences and have Australian Ministers always represented Australia at this forum.

(2) Does the Government have a commitment to the resolution of outstanding social issues including massive poverty, low life expectancy, the high prevalence of diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS, the crisis concerning refugees and the prevalence of di scrimination based on ethnicity and gender in many of the poorer countries of the world.

(3) If so, why has Australia decided not to have any ministerial representation at the UN World Summit on Social Development to be held on 26 to 30 June 2000.

(4) What is the reason for the reduction in Australia’s formerly prominent participation in these UN conferences.

1655  MR MURPHY: To ask the Attorney-General—

(1) Has the Australian Federal Police received a copy of the movement records of former Senator Colst on, in respect of the ‘travel rort’ court proceedings discontinued on alleged medical grounds outlined in the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions media statement of 5 July 1999.

(2) Are the records a document of public record on the litigation file and available for public inspection.

1656  MR DANBY: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs—

(1) Is he able to say whether activists from the China Democracy Party including (a) We-li Xu, Yong-min Qin, You-cai Wang (Executive Chairs), (b) Xin-jiao You (Chairman of China National Fu Xing Party), (c) Jian-guo Cha, Ming-hong Gao, Shi-jun Liu (Chairpeople of the CDP: Beijing and Tianjin branch), (d) Yu-fu Zhu, Qing-xiang Mao (Cadres of Zhejiang Committee), (f) Ze-chen Zhu, Wen-jiang Wang (Cadres of CDP Liaoning branch), (g) Shi-dong Tun (Cadres of CDP Hunan branch), (h) Shi-chang Xiao (Secretary-General of CDP Hubei branch), (i) Shen-ping Fu, Li-fa Han (Cadres of CDP Shanghai branch), (j) Tian-xiang Yu (Cadres of CDP Gansu branch), (k) Feng Yu (Chairman of CDP Hebei branch), (l) Xian-bin Liu (Cadre of CDP Sichan Branch) and the Cadres of other CDP branches and (m) Xin-heng Yang (Shanghai), Gui-hua Cai (Shanghai), Xi-an Li (Zhejiang), Zheng-ming Zhu (Zhejiang), Liang-qing Shen (Anhui), Xian-li Liu (Anhui), Yi-ping fan (Guangdong), Tao Yang (Guangdong), Zhi-lou Li (Guangxi), Wang-bao She (Sichan), Cheng-ming Guo (Liaoning), Xin-min Guo (Gansu), Fong-shan Wang (Gansu), You-ju Zhang (Hebei), Zhong-ho Chen (Hebei), Jin Liu (Hebei), Jian Zhang (Hebei) have been arrested by the Chinese authorities.

(2) Has the Australian Government made inquiries into the welfare and whereabouts of these individuals; if so, (a) what is their current situation and (b) where are they.

(3) Will he raise the arrest of these individuals at the Australia-China Human Rights Dialogue in Canberra in June 2000.

1657  MS J. S. McFARLANE: To ask the Treasurer—

(1) Do wage and salary earners with HECS debts who have elected to pay through the tax system have a component of this debt taken out e ach pay period which is paid to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) as extra income tax.

(2) Does the ATO hold this contribution in the employer’s group tax account and during August each year, does it transfer the monies across to the HECS account in a single yearly transaction.

(3) Does the ATO apply an indexation to the HECS debt at 1 June each year.

(4) Does the indexation occur before the monies collected through the tax system in a financial year are deducted from the debt; if so, is interest charged o n the sum already paid back through the tax system but not deducted from the debt.

(5) Does the level of inflation determine the indexation rate.

(6) Has Treasury undertaken modelling to examine the effect of inflationary pressures caused by the implementation of the GST on the cost of a range of student HECS repayments; if not, why not.

(7) If so, what would (a) be the increase in the HECS indexation rate for each percentage increase in inflation and (b) this translate to in real cost per annum to the person repaying the HECS loan in the income brackets (i) below $22 346, (ii) $22 346 to $23 565, (iii) $23 566 to $25 393, (iv) $25 394 to $29 456, (v) $29 457 to $35 551, (vi) $35 552 to $37 420, (vii) $37 421 to $40 223 and (viii) $40 224 and above.