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Hansard
- Start of Business
- TAXATION LAWS AMENDMENT (EXCISE ARRANGEMENTS) BILL 2000
- TAXATION LAWS AMENDMENT BILL (NO. 5) 1999
- MATTERS OF PUBLIC INTEREST
- QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
- DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
- QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
- DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
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QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
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Goods and Services Tax: Small Business
(McKiernan, Sen Jim, Kemp, Sen Rod) -
Goods and Services Tax: Small Business
(Watson, Sen John, Kemp, Sen Rod) -
Business Tax Reform: Proposed Changes
(Sherry, Sen Nick, Kemp, Sen Rod) -
International Treaties: Impact on Domestic Law
(Greig, Sen Brian, Ellison, Sen Chris)
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Goods and Services Tax: Small Business
- DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
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QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
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Small Business: Taxation
(Buckland, Sen Geoffrey, Kemp, Sen Rod) -
Prawns: White Spot Virus
(Woodley, Sen John, Hill, Sen Robert) -
Trade: Tariffs
(Campbell, Sen George, Minchin, Sen Nick) -
Australian Electoral Office: Provision of Information
(Mason, Sen Brett, Abetz, Sen Eric) -
Kyoto Protocol
(Cook, Sen Peter, Hill, Sen Robert)
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Small Business: Taxation
- ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
- PETITIONS
- NOTICES
- COMMITTEES
- NOTICES
- COMMITTEES
- MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
- COMMITTEES
- COMMITTEES
- BILLS RETURNED FROM THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- BROADCASTING LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL 2001
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APPROPRIATION (PARLIAMENTARY DEPARTMENTS) BILL (NO. 2) 2000-2001
APPROPRIATION BILL (NO. 3) 2000-2001
APPROPRIATION BILL (NO. 4) 2000-2001 - PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
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APPROPRIATION (PARLIAMENTARY DEPARTMENTS) BILL (NO. 2) 2000-2001
APPROPRIATION BILL (NO. 3) 2000-2001
APPROPRIATION BILL (NO. 4) 2000-2001 - DOCUMENTS
- ADJOURNMENT
- DOCUMENTS
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QUESTIONS ON NOTICE
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1800 Telephone Number Facility
(Brown, Sen Bob, Abetz, Sen Eric) -
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Casual Staff
(Bishop, Sen Mark, Alston, Sen Richard) -
Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business Portfolio: Contracts to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
(Ray, Sen Robert, Alston, Sen Richard) -
Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business Portfolio: Contracts to KPMG
(Ray, Sen Robert, Alston, Sen Richard) -
Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business Portfolio: Contracts to PricewaterhouseCoopers
(Ray, Sen Robert, Alston, Sen Richard) -
Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business Portfolio: Contracts to Ernst & Young
(Ray, Sen Robert, Alston, Sen Richard) -
Attorney-General's Department: Legal Advice
(Ray, Sen Robert, Kemp, Sen Rod) -
Department of Workplace Relations and Small Business: Legal Advice
(Ray, Sen Robert, Alston, Sen Richard) -
Australian Electoral Commission: Objections
(Faulkner, Sen John, Abetz, Sen Eric) -
Tootgarook Swamp, Victoria
(Brown, Sen Bob, Hill, Sen Robert)
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1800 Telephone Number Facility
Page: 23205
Senator GEORGE CAMPBELL (3:22 PM)
—It is interesting that in Senator Chapman's contribution he said that the Liberal Party were leading and listening. The trouble is they have been leading from the rear and they have been listening with their hearing aids switched off. That is self-evident when you talk to the myriad of people running small businesses around this country and you see how they have reacted to the way they have been absolutely monstered by the introduction of the GST. Do not take our word for it. We do not expect you to take our word for it. We do not expect you to listen to much of what we say here—though you are pretty quick off the mark stealing our policy in terms of how we would deal with relief for small business and implementing it as your own policy to try to deal with the mess that you have left small business in. Do not take our word for it. Take the word of the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank. In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 24 March, he said:
The Reserve Bank has laid the blame for the economic downturn on the GST—which it says has hit not only housing but confidence—and rejected suggestions that higher interest rates were the cause.
... ... ...
... Dr Grenfell said the bank believed the GST not only hurt the construction sector but also business confidence.
He said businesses faced a squeeze on profits and cash flows as a result of price pressures from the GST, the exchange rate and oil prices. In a low-inflation environment, they were not in a position to pass these on he said.
`When this is combined with the disruption and general choler associated with the introduction of the new tax regime, small and medium business confidence took a hit,' Dr Grenfell said.
Following that, an article which appeared in the Australian on Monday, 26 March under the by-line of Samantha Magnusson with the heading `GST Jams Company Cash Flow' said:
A crisis of confidence is sweeping corporate Australia, with ompanies increasingly delaying payments to suppliers as they struggle to meet their GST obligations.
A survey by Australian Business Ltd found that the GST was disrupting normal business transactions, forcing large and small businesses to juggle the timing of receipt of payments and the receipt of funds.
`Normal payments are not getting paid in the normal time frame they expect,' Australian business Ltd economics adviser Jeff Schubert said.
... ... ...
More than 65 per cent of the 775 businesses canvassed said the GST had a direct negative effect on their cash flows, overwhelmingly because customers were delaying paying their bills.
`Because so much of the business sector is attempting to do this, the process is having a very cumulative and disruptive impact on the normal flow of inter-business payments,' Mr Schubert said.
Many businesses also found they were unable to pass the full amount of the tax on to their customers, reinforcing the view that the GST is a tax on suppliers, not consumers.
More than a third of those surveyed found the new tax had `significantly' changed demand for their products, while 26 per cent said they were unable to recover the full amount of the tax in selling prices.
This is not coming from the Labor Party; this is coming from the business community. This is coming from people who are out there trying to operate businesses in an environment that has been created for them by this government by the implementation of a goods and services tax, a tax regime which has thrown business—particularly small business—into absolute chaos. It has impacted on them substantial costs beyond which they could reasonably have expected, costs that many small businesses are not able to meet in setting about and doing business. That is the impact of the goods and services tax on the small business community.
That demonstrates more than anything else that this is a government that does not know how to listen and certainly does not know how to lead. This is a government that has set about with an ideological obsession for a tax regime that may have had some relevance in the 1970s and 1980s but certainly has no relevance in the community we are living in now in the 21st century. It has set about imposing that on the Australian people without proper and due consideration of the impact and, as a consequence, it has had a major impact upon the business community in this country—particularly on small business—to the extent of an article appearing in the Australian Financial Review today under the heading `Life is Taxing for the Easter Bunny'. Even Easter eggs and the Easter bunny are going to be impacted upon by the GST.
Senator GEORGE CAMPBELL
—They are going to be hit by your tax regime, Senator Hill. (Time expired)
Question resolved in the affirmative.