THE House Tax and Revenue Committee will this week hear from the Australian Tax Commissioner and the Inspector-General of Taxation in its review of the performance of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) over 2015–16.

The meeting will start with evidence from the Council of Small Business Australia, the peak body which exclusively represents the interests of small business.

The Committee Chair Mr Kevin Hogan MP said, “The ATO is undergoing a major reinvention process, aiming to both increase voluntary compliance and enhance the community’s confidence in the fairness of our tax and superannuation systems. At the Committee’s last public hearing, tax professionals welcomed a developing sense of partnership with the ATO in advancing these goals, while the ATO’s submission also reported technical successes with its online myTax/etax lodgements up nine per cent on last tax time (as at October 2016)”.

“On Wednesday, the Committee will take evidence from the Tax Commissioner and ATO officials about the measures being deployed to improve willing compliance across the whole community—from small to very large business, and individuals, while the Inspector-General of Taxation and his Deputy will be invited to discuss the fairness and efficiencies of the ATO’s debt collection processes, and related matters,” Mr Hogan said.

Public hearing details: 4:10pm, Wednesday 30 November, Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House, Canberra

4:10pm: Council of Small Business Australia
4:40pm: Australian Tax Commissioner and Officials
4:30pm: Inspector-General of Taxation and Deputy
6:10pm: Close

The hearing will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live. 

Interested members of the public may wish to track the committee via the website. 

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PARLIAMENT'S Northern Australia Committee has commenced an Inquiry into Opportunities and Methods for Stimulating the Tourism Industry in Northern Australia.

The Government’s White Paper on developing Northern Australia, released in June 2015 recognised tourism as an industry with ‘bright prospects in the North’ and that Northern Australia could ‘capitalise on its iconic locations, open spaces and clean environment to host the millions of tourists every year.’

The Committee Chair, Warren Entsch MP, stated, ‘Tourism is an industry central to the economy of many parts of Northern Australia and has the ability to provide greater short and long term economic opportunities for communities across all regions.’

‘Despite offering a range of activities and great experiences, the numbers of both domestic and international visitors to Northern Australia has declined in the last decade when compared to those visiting the rest of Australia. The inquiry will investigate how tourism to Northern Australia can be stimulated and how impediments can be addressed.’

Submissions from interested individuals and organisations are invited by 16 February 2017. The preferred method of receiving submissions is by electronic format lodged online using a My Parliament account.

Further information about the Committee’s inquiry, including the full terms of reference and details on how to lodge a submission are available on the Committee’s website.

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THE House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics has tabled its first Report on the banking sector in parliament.

The Report contains a number of recommendations to Government, including:

• the creation of a new Banking Tribunal by 1 July 2017, to enable consumers to achieve fair and timely recompense through a one stop shop;
• a new regime for executive accountability, with licence breaches reported publicly for the first time;
• a requirement that banks be forced to open up access to consumer data by 1 July 2018, which will give consumers much greater options when seeking to switch banks;
• a new, permanent regulatory function focused on day-to-day monitoring of competition in the banking sector;
• a review of the regulatory barriers to starting a bank, with the goal of injecting more competition into the sector; and
• new structures to improve the operation of bank internal dispute resolution processes, and risk management systems.
• Committee Chairman, David Coleman MP, said that the Report was the first in what would become a regular series:

“Banks need to be held to account for their actions.  The financial stability of our system is critical – but so is ensuring that consumers get a fair deal.  The Committee has identified a wide range of areas in which banking regulation can be improved to better serve the Australian community.  As we continue our ongoing review of the banking sector, we look forward to the Government’s response to the recommendations contained in the Report.”

The Committee expects to hold its next public hearings with the major banks in the first quarter of next year, soon after its scheduled public hearing with the Reserve Bank on 24 February 2017.

The report can be accessed from the Committee’s website.

www.aph.gov.au/economics

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THE Treaties Committee today tabled two reports covering their examination of six treaties covering a range of topics.

Amendments to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) will remove tariffs on a range of technology products and eliminate agricultural export subsidies.

Committee Chair, tStuart Robert MP, says that while the changes will provide incremental improvements for Australian consumers and farmers, domestic subsidies and non-tariff barriers must be further reduced to encourage global trade.

Updates to the international Radio Regulations will provide for the growing demand for mobile broadband services, improve aeronautical and maritime communications and the international coordination of satellite networks.

Mr Robert said that accepting the revisions will align Australia with the rest of the world in its regulation of the radio frequency spectrum.

The reports also cover regular air service agreements with Kuwait and Bahrain and changes to an aviation safety agreement with the United States which will enable Australian manufacturers to gain access to the United States aviation market, one of the biggest in the world.  

Changes to the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements are also examined.

Interested members of the public may wish to track the committee via the website. 

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