Senator MURRAY (9:20 PM) —I am always keen to hear Senator Conroy's contribution. I am beginning to believe that there is a Frank Muir School of Finished Talking in the Labor Party. I counted perhaps 50 different themes in your speech and as many hackneyed phrases about the GST as you could possibly get in there. I missed an `end of the day'; there was not an `end of the day' statement in this, so you missed out on that one. I must say that was a rehash of much that is pretty hackneyed.

What is not hackneyed, of course, is the detailing of the need for professional assistance in dealing with the new tax system. Frankly, I am not surprised that in any major implementation exercise you do need to bring in outside experts, contractors and so on. That is just the way it is. I am not surprised, and I do not think it is anything to concern ourselves about. It does indeed put a load on professionals and those who have to implement this matter, both at the government and at the private sector levels. But that is the case with any major reform and any major change. I just keep going back to the fact that three-quarters of the countries in the world have managed to cope with such a change and have gone through this process, and the result has been favourable to the countries concerned. So, whilst once again I do not minimise the complexity or the difficulty of implementation, it will pass, and when it does Australia will be all the better for the new tax system we have. As senators in this chamber know, I really do believe that and I have believed that for a long time.

The bill before us refers to the `new tax system' rather than the GST. The other elements of the new tax system, which are quite considerable, are often overlooked or ignored in the focus on the GST, partly because of their very wide range and partly because they lack the excitement or the interest that attaches to the GST. These particular issues are not exciting, although they are important. The bill makes largely technical changes to the pay-as-you-go tax collection system. The bill affects the collection of fringe benefits tax, and it deals with the question of instalments which are payable. The bill specifically introduces provisions dealing with the calculation of income, tax rates and instalment payments for multi-rate trustees. It makes a couple of minor changes to FBT assessment and collection—particularly where FBT liability is varied downward, instalments already paid will be able to be credited against the remaining liability to the degree that they exceed the required instalment payments. The second change is to allow for a person's notional amount of fringe benefits tax to be varied in certain circumstances. When you read out such a list, is it any surprise that the media concentrate on the GST and not on such changes? They are not exactly riveting, but they do matter to the businesses and the institutions affected and they help make the new tax system that little bit more workable. With those brief remarks, I advise you that, like the Labor Party, the Democrats will be supporting these amendments.