Mr HOCKEY (Financial Services and Regulation) (9:43 PM) —in reply—I would like to thank the member for Canning, who is obviously the self-appointed spokesperson for small business on the other side of House, primarily because she is the only person who has ever had any experience in small business on the Labor Party side of the House. I congratulate her for speaking on the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (No. 5) 1998 , and I wish that a few of her colleagues had joined her in speaking on this legislation. When there is one voice, one lonely sole voice, in caucus defending the interests of small business, we know it will be the member for Canning, because no-one else has any experience in small business. I would also like to thank the member for Forrest for his contribution. As a former minister for small business, he has an intimate understanding of the importance of small business for the Australian economy. I would like to thank the member for Wills for his support for this bill.

In conclusion, I would like to summarise the merits of the changes made by this bill. This bill introduces new charges and penalty arrangements for outstanding amounts of tax accompanied by a system of running account balances. The tax penalty arrangements provide a uniform, tax deductible, general interest charge and replace a number of existing penalty arrangements. The new running account balance system will eventually allow the ATO to maintain all of a business's tax liabilities in a single account. Small and medium businesses will benefit from the alignment of remittance dates to the 21st of the month. This gives them an extra 14 days to remit withheld amounts to the tax office.

This bill includes an anti-avoidance measure targeted at foreign tax credit schemes and is consistent with an international crackdown on such arrangements. The anti-avoidance provisions of part 4A of the tax law will be amended to render some foreign tax schemes ineffective. I commend the bill to the House.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill read a second time.