BANK TAX: SLOMO ON THE UPTAKE

19 May 2017

Another day goes by and Scott Morrison continues to refuse to publicly release the Governments bank levy legislation.

Presumably Scott Morrison intends for the Governments legislation on the major bank levy to pass the Parliament before 30 June for a 1 July start-date. Fair enough.

Well the Treasurer needs to do everything in his power to be assisting that process and assisting parliamentary parties

The Government needs to drop the secrecy routine and publicly release the draft legislation today.

All of the key questions around the bank levy now go to the Treasurers competence or lack thereof. Key questions include whether: the bank levy is tax deductible, will raise the claimed $6.2 billion, and will they have the levy rate prescribed in legislation or legislative instrument? Most of the questions are answered by the Treasurer releasing the draft legislation and explaining the design features.

Yesterday the Government wheeled out the ACCC Chairman who proceeded to tell us (1) he had no powers to stop the banks passing on the cost of the bank tax and (2) he wasnt sure the tax would increase competition as heroically claimed by Scott Morrison.

Meanwhile, Labors case for reforming negative gearing is strengthened by the introduction of the bank levy, with concerns being raised that the costs being passed on to property investment loans would see a third to half of the cost borne by taxpayers through negative gearing,

The Treasurer continues to try and turn a measure that enjoys public support and support from other political parties into a stinker through appalling stakeholder management and secrecy.