THE Opposition is failing working Australians and the wider community by continuing to oppose the China-Australia Fair Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), and should urgently commit to passing this vitally important deal for our national prosperity, says resource industry employer group AMMA (Australian Mines and Metals Association).

“Australia needs our political leaders to show our region and the world that we are a mature and capable country, able to seize trading opportunities and competitive advantages. For Labor, this is a real test of its maturity and claims to be an alternative government,” says AMMA CEO Steve Knott.

“Bill Shorten needs to distance himself and his party from the xenophobic China-baiting coming from sections of the union movement. He needs to demonstrate leadership and show Labor is capable of supporting jobs and living standards for all Australians.”

Mr Knott says the Opposition should listen to the Australian people, state and territory leaders, and respected Labor figures such as Bob Hawke, Bob Carr and Warren Mundine who overwhelmingly support the ChAFTA.

Under Keating, Labor spearheaded Australia’s engagement with Asia. Under Whitlam and Hawke, Labor had a proud record of tariff reform and leading global free trade. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard then delivered FTAs with Malaysia, New Zealand, Chile and ASEAN.

“For the first time in decades Labor is standing in the way of new trade opportunities for Australia, and risks being tarnished by the xenophobic campaign unions are waging against our biggest trading partner and the birth country of hundreds of thousands of Australians,” Mr Knott continues.

“Labor’s professed concerns on Labour Market Testing lack foundation.  Existing FTAs, including those negotiated under Rudd and Gillard, covered the same ground on working visas, with not a peep.

“Mr Shorten needs to push back against the CFMEU and show Labor will not be a party of Sinophobes – that it is capable of making decisions for the future of all Australians and is not a party beholden to xenophobic union bosses.

“If he fails to do so, intentionally or not he is helping unions flirt with racism and risks a preferential deal with the best possible trading partner for Australia.

“Australia will long rue the missed opportunity if the ChAFTA does not proceed and our competitors take up the opportunities we have worked towards for a decade. The responsibility for such a failure would lie squarely at the feet of the Labor Opposition.”

www.amma.org.au

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THE Australian Food and Grocery Council will discuss growing Australia’s nearly $3 billion trade in agri-food exports to the Middle East with federal parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade at a public hearing in Canberra tomorrow.

The Trade sub-committee’s inquiry into trade with the Middle East will hear from the Council representing Australia’s food, beverage and grocery manufacturing industry about the potential of Australia’s largest manufacturing sector to help feed a region with a population of more than 350 million.

The strong demand for imported food in the Middle East and North Africa will grow largely due to the region having scarce arable land and water for domestic food production alongside rising per capita incomes and consumer spending, proliferation of supermarkets, larger populations and a growing tourism hospitality sector.

While Australian agri-food exports to the Middle East have traditionally been focussed on bulk commodities such as grain and live animals, the growing tourism and related services sectors in Middle East economies has underpinned growing exports of processed food products from Australia according to the Council.

Australia’s food, beverage and grocery manufacturing industry has an annual turnover of approximately $111 billion, directly employs almost 300,000 people, with half of those in rural and regional areas, and generates $24 billion in exports.

Australia’s exports of processed food products to the Middle East averaged 23 per cent growth over the years 2009 to 2013, mostly due to strong demand in the United Arab Emirates. Australia’s exports of processed food to the UAE increased from $34 million in 2009 to $101 million in 2013 at an average annual growth of 32 per cent.

Public hearing

Date/Time                   Wednesday 9 September 2015, 11:05 am

Location                     Committee Room 1R3, Parliament House, Canberra

Organisation              Australian Food and Grocery Council

Live audio broadcast will be available at www.aph.gov.au/live

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THE ATO has acknowledged that its use of technology and administrative changes combined with the existing ATO portal issues have added to the frustrations and lost productivity for many small tax practitioners.

“Most tax agent practitioners are small businesses themselves working hard to service the interests of their clients,” said Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) chief executive officer, Andrew Conway.

“Tax practitioners are still very much in demand and assist some 70 per cent of individuals and 90 per cent of business taxpayers meet their tax compliance obligations.

“While the IPA supports the better use of technology, it is concerning that the ATO’s push for more digital interactions is coming at the expense of tax agent practices.

“Our members have highlighted to us on many occasions that they have suffered productivity loss, missed deadlines, and incurred irrecoverable costs as well as damage to their reputations and relationships with their clients.

“Transitioning to a digital delivery for BAS statements and the use of the Client Correspondence List on the portal are two recent examples causing frustration and which are having a detrimental impact on the relationship between tax agents and the ATO.

“The ATO portal which is an essential tool of trade for practitioners and agents has been a constant point of frustration due to the portal’s instability and unreliability.  More digital interactions are putting even more reliance on the sub-standard portal.

“The ATO has acknowledged that the portal is far from best practice and is currently working on a long term solution through the migration to a new more functional platform.  The acknowledgment and the following statement by the ATO has been welcomed:

 “Where the ATO is looking to develop technology or administrative changes, we will co design and consult with a range a tax practices to build systems that consider and accommodate the current practice management procedures. The aim will be to ensure that the changes do not add additional tasks that practitioners will need to accommodate outside of their normal processes but rather will operate within the normal processes.” 

“On the back of this, we look forward to the ATO’s commitment to co-design with better consultation to build systems that consider and accommodate current practice management procedures,” said Mr Conway.

Source: Statement was made at the 21 August meeting of the Australian Tax Practitioner Advisory Group (ATPAG), of which the IPA is a member.

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THE Audit Office, Treasury and the Tax Office will appear together tomorrow at a public hearing into the Tax Expenditures Statement.

The Statement attempts to measure the billions of dollars of concessions in the tax law and its goal is to increase the transparency and scrutiny of tax exemptions.

The Audit Office released audit reports into the Statement in 2008 and 2013. The 2013 audit found that some of the recommendations from the first audit had not been fully implemented or had been discontinued. The topics covered were: better integrating tax expenditures in the Budget process; regular reviews of tax expenditures; and improving the quality of the estimates.

Bert van Manen MP, Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue, said the Audit Office does important work for the Parliament and Australia.

“The Audit Office has noted that recommendations on tax expenditures in the 1970s to 1990s were often not implemented. The same has occurred to the Audit Office recommendations of 2008. The Committee believes these issues are worth examining again.”

In its submission, the Audit Office has proposed the following priorities for Treasury:

• establishing a program of prioritised reviews to inform improvements in tax expenditure measures and to indicate whether tax expenditures are meeting their policy aims
• putting back in aggregate, trend and comparative reporting of tax expenditures to improve the visibility of their size and importance.

In its submission, Treasury has stated that, following further consideration, it believes the audit recommendations are no longer relevant or appropriate. Its concern is that the estimates are often misunderstood and their limitations are not taken into account.

Public hearing

Date:Wednesday, 9 September 2015
Time: 4.10 – 5.10 pm
Location: Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House, Canberra

The committee is still accepting submissions to the inquiry, which can be lodged through the Committee’s website.

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WITH the Labor Party today failing in its latest bid to remove Dyson Heydon AC QC as head of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Corruption, the Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA) has reiterated the importance of the Commission completing the job of rooting out corruption and illegality from our trade unions.

The Opposition unsuccessfully raised a motion in the Senate to call on the Governor-General to remove the Royal Commissioner - with a tied vote seeing it defeated.

“This was nothing more than a misguided stunt that rightfully never gained traction in the Senate,” says AMMA executive director, policy and public affairs, Scott Barklamb.

“We congratulate those crossbench senators that saw through this latest cynical attempt to shield corrupt union officials from proper scrutiny and accountability.

“It is time for the ALP to stop standing in the way of positive steps towards eliminating the unlawfulness and corruption plaguing some Australian unions.

“The vast majority of honest union officials, doing their job and working for their members, have absolutely nothing to fear from the Royal Commission, and the ALP needs to realise unions will be stronger and more respected if bad apples and illegal practices are exposed.”

Mr Barklamb says the continuation of the Royal Commission hearings must be part of an ongoing process to stamp out union corruption, especially in the construction industry.

“Despite union attempts to derail the Royal Commission and shift the spotlight off the lawlessness within some union ranks, the damning evidence already uncovered speaks to the urgent need to reintroduce the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) as an effective industry regulator,” he says.

“The Senate should now support the restoration of the ABCC and demonstrate to unions, employers and the Australian community that no individual or group is above the rule of law.

“AMMA will also continue to argue for both unions and registered employer organisations to be bound by the same governance standards, transparency and penalties for wrongdoing that applies to corporations and their directors.”

www.amma.org.au

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THE Australian uranium mining industry is set to double in size if an agreement to sell uranium to India is ratified, Parliament’s Treaties Committee has found.

The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has tabled its report into the Australia – India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, which could see Australian uranium in dozens of new Indian electricity generating nuclear reactors over the coming decades.

Committee Chair, Mr Wyatt Roy MP, said that the deal could increase export revenue by an estimated $1.75bn and double the number of Australians employed in the uranium mining industry.

The deal will be particularly important for rural and remote areas in states like South Australia and Western Australia, where uranium mining is expected to ramp up.

Queensland could also significantly benefit if the Queensland Government reverses its decision to stop uranium mining.

In India, Australian uranium could help bring low-carbon emission electricity to the 400 million people who do not have access to power at present.

While the Agreement is designed to ensure that Australian nuclear material is only used in safeguarded facilities and cannot be diverted for use in nuclear weapons, the Committee has made a number of recommendations to strengthen safeguards and improve non-proliferation outcomes.

“Critically, on the basis of assurances from the Director-General of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office, the Committee trusts that Australian nuclear material in India can be tracked and accounted for, ensuring that it is not used for anything other than peaceful purposes,” Mr Roy said.

The committee has recommended that the regulation of nuclear safety and security at Indian nuclear facilities be addressed before the sale of uranium takes place. 

Another recommendation is that Australia commit diplomatic resources to encourage India to make genuine disarmament advances, such as signing the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

“The Committee has successfully navigated a series of complicated issues to reach a point where, with certain qualifications, it supports a deal that will cement Australia’s relationship with an emerging world power,” Mr Roy said.

The full report is available on the committee’s website or by contacting the committee secretariat on (02) 6277 4002.  

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BUILDING Information Modelling (BIM) is a powerful model-based tool that is revolutionising the design, construction and management of infrastructure. It allows for the creation of intelligent, three-dimensional models that can be shared in the design, construction and management phases of infrastructure development.

Tomorrow, the Infrastructure and Communications Committee will meet with representatives of Autodesk—an international leader in the development of BIM, and creator of the AutoCAD design programme—to discuss the role that BIM can play in improving the quality and efficiency of infrastructure projects.

According to Autodesk, "25 per cent of infrastructure project costs are tied to change orders, requests for information (RFIs), rework, and design clashes that are not found until construction begins."

“The AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industry is showing progress in improving their productivity and reducing these project costs through the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM).”

Committee Chairman Jane Prentice MP (Ryan, Qld) said, “The current Inquiry into the role of Smart ICT in the design and planning of infrastructure has already uncovered a range of exciting and innovative technologies, which have the potential to make the procurement of infrastructure more efficient and long-term management more effective.”

Mrs Prentice believes that BIM is set to revolutionise the way governments and industry do business when it comes to investing in infrastructure.

“The new tools becoming available to government and industry have the power to transform the economic productivity of infrastructure development, making existing infrastructure more productive and new infrastructure more cost-effective.”

Details of the hearing are as follows:
Date: Wednesday, 9 September 2015
Time: 8:00 am–9:00 am
Venue: Committee Room 1R3, Parliament House, Canberra

8:00am Autodesk (Submission 4)
The public hearing will be webcast live at http://www.aph.gov.au/live

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PUBLIC hearings on the China Australia Free Trade Agreement will conclude this week, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and other agencies responding to issues raised throughout the Treaties Committee’s inquiry.

Representatives from Master Builders Australia and Australian Pork Limited will also appear to provide evidence on the impact of the Agreement on their industries.

China provides Australia’s largest agriculture and fisheries market and biggest export market for resources, energy and manufacturing. Chinese investment in Australia has grown strongly in recent years and the country is also Australia’s largest services market.

The Agreement is expected to eliminate or significantly reduce tariffs on a wide range of Australian goods exports including beef, dairy, sheep meat, wine, horticulture and energy and resource products. It also delivers China’s best services commitments to date, including the provision of new or significantly improved market access for financial, legal, education and health and aged care services.

Over six weeks of public hearings across the country, the Committee has heard evidence from a range of witnesses, including representatives from agriculture, manufacturing, business and export groups, academics and unions.

Committee Chair, Mr Wyatt Roy MP, said the inquiry process had helped the Committee understand the impact the Agreement would have on different industries.

“The hearings have helped us understand how the China Australia Free Trade Agreement will affect Australian businesses, particularly the opportunities for growth that it provides,” he said.

“We have also identified key aspects of the Agreement that are concerning some in the community and will seek clarification on these issues from DFAT and other agencies in our final hearing this week.”

The Committee is due to report on the inquiry into the China Australia Free Trade Agreement in October.

Public Hearing:

Monday 7 September 2015

Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House Canberra

10.30am: Free Trade Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Government of the People’s Republic of China

1.00pm: Close

The hearing will be broadcast through: www.aph.gov.au/live

Hearing programs, copies of the treaties and submissions received can be found at: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Treaties

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