TRANSCRIPT
of
HON. PETER COSTELLO MP
Treasurer

Doorstop
Launceston

Friday, 24 August 2001
9.40am

 

SUBJECTS: GROOM FEC

JOURNALIST:

Treasurer, Labor claims you should resign because of misleading Parliament

yesterday over this input taxing credits in Queensland, the Liberal branch.

What is your response?

TREASURER:

Well, earlier this week Kim Beazley dragged his daughter into public life and

falsely claimed that she had been turned away by the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital

in Perth, a claim which has now been exposed as false. The Labor Party decided

on Thursday of this week, that in order to divert attention, and this was admitted

by the Labor Party in the newspapers today, in order to divert attention from

Mr Beazley and his false accusations, that they would make some further false

accusations. This is a complete diversionary strategy from Mr Beazley, and it

is admitted in today’s Age.

JOURNALIST:

(inaudible)

TREASURER:

Let me go through the facts, let me go through the facts here. Let me go through

the facts here. The documents which were tabled in the Parliament by the Labor

Party yesterday show that GST was paid. That is what they actually show. They

do not show that an input tax credit was improperly claimed. And, I have made

inquiries of the Federal Liberal Party which is responsible for complying with

the Tax Act and they say that they have made disclosure to the Tax Office and

this matter has been settled. So unless the Labor Party has any further evidence,

on the documentation as it stands at the moment – GST, the $826 – was paid.

Was paid. Now, what I am waiting for, is, I am waiting for the Labor Party to

come up with some evidence that the tax obligations were not met, because according

to those that are responsible, and I am not responsible for filing the tax returns

as I have made clear, and according to those who are, they say that they have

discussed this matter with the Tax Office and the GST obligations have been

complied with, so…

JOURNALIST:

At the very least though there is embarrassment that a branch of the Liberal

Party could falsely claim something then have to seek clarification through

the Tax office off its own policy?

TREASURER:

Well . . .

JOURNALIST:

I mean at the very least . . .

TREASURER:

. . . let me make this point. It is not clear that anybody claimed it back,

and I certainly have no knowledge of that, right? But if somebody claimed an

input tax credit which they were not entitled to do, if that occurred then it

should not have occurred. And if that was wrongly done, then the proper thing

to do is to disclose that to the Australian Taxation Office and have it reversed.

If that occurred, that is what should have been done. But you have got to bear

this in mind, I am not responsible for filing the tax returns of millions of

taxpayers, including the Groom FEC and the Queensland Liberal Party. I don’t

even know if it was claimed, and in fact the inquiries that I have made have

told me that it wasn’t. Now, if somebody has got proof that the claim was made,

or that it hasn’t been corrected then that should be referred to the Australian

Taxation Office.

JOURNALIST:

(inaudible). . . You inferred in Question Time yesterday very clearly that

you didn’t know anything about it. Later, only within hours, you were forced

to put out a statement showing that there was correspondence between the Small

Business Minister and you as early as March. Did you mislead the Parliament

yesterday?

TREASURER:

Well, there was no correspondence between the Small Business Minister and me.

I think you have to be very precise here. You have just said there was correspondence

between the Small Business Minister and me. There is no correspondence between

the Small Business Minister and me . . .

JOURNALIST:

(inaudible)

TREASURER:

Let’s got through the facts. The facts are that a dinner was organised in Toowoomba,

which as far as I can tell from the Labor Party’s documents, because I haven’t

seen the documents, GST was paid. I was not responsible for any of those arrangements,

I was not informed about them, I was not responsible for any of the returns.

That is the truth. In February of this year, as I said last night, a member

of the Liberal Party complained to me about the Groom FEC and my office referred

that complaint to the member concerned. The same member of the Liberal Party

complained to Lynton Crosby and Lynton Crosby has made a statement that he inquired

into the matter and his inquiries showed that the obligations had been met.

Now, if anyone has evidence that the obligations have not been met – and I certainly

don’t have any, these returns are not filed by me, they are not sent to me,

they are sent to the Australian Taxation Office. If anybody has any evidence

that an improper claim was made, or, that in having been made it was not properly

disclosed and corrected, then they should produce that evidence and the Australian

Taxation Office would be very, very pleased to receive it, I am sure. But the

information that comes to us is that this has been disclosed.

JOURNALIST:

(inaudible). . .aren’t you embarrassed that as the Party that introduced the

tax you can’t even apply it to yourself properly.

TREASURER:

Well, as I said earlier, if the Liberal Party has made any errors in its return

they should be corrected. I have said the same in relation to any business.

If any business has made any error it should be corrected. . .

JOURNALIST:

But you’re saying . . .

TREASURER:

Now, I have said over, and over again in the Parliament, and I will say it

again today, if anybody has made an error in relation to a return, that once

they become aware of that error they should disclose it to the Australian Taxation

Office and they should correct any errors. And that goes for the Liberal Party,

it goes for the Labor Party, and if there are going to be audits in relation

to the Labor Party, I hope the Labor Party also acknowledges its errors. . .

JOURNALIST:

But Treasurer surely we can expect the Party that introduced the tax to be

able to apply it to itself correctly. I mean that is very embarrassing isn’t

it?

TREASURER:

No. We ask all taxpayers to comply with their obligations . . .

JOURNALIST:

(inaudible)

TREASURER:

People make mistakes from time to time, I dare say you might have made a mistake

in your tax return from time to time, but if you have what I would say is once

you become aware of it, the proper thing to do . . .

JOURNALIST:

But I didn’t write the tax, Mr Treasurer.

TREASURER:

I don’t think the FEC did either.

JOURNALIST:

So you’re saying that on the evidence available . . .

TREASURER:

If it became aware, if it became aware of an error, then the proper thing to

do is to disclose that to the Taxation Office. This is the advice we have been

giving to all small businesses, to disclose it to the Taxation Office and correct

it.

JOURNALIST:

Isn’t this . . .

TREASURER:

Now, you know, you are going into a new taxation system, people were having

to understand their obligations. We said to small business that during the phase-in

period, errors would be made. That where errors were made, the important thing

was to disclose them, where they are disclosed, to fix them up. And I think

we are now 12 months into it, undoubtedly a lot of people when they were adjusting

to this would have had doubts about the situation. I say to all people, I say

it to the Liberal Party, I say it to the Labor Party – if you become aware of

an error, the important thing to do is to get onto the Tax Office to disclose

it and fix it. And from the inquiries I have made from those that are responsible,

that is what happened.

JOURNALIST:

(inaudible) do you (inaudible) to your knowledge?

TREASURER:

Well, I have the ALP documents. The ALP documents show that GST was paid. We

have an allegation that an input tax credit was claimed, but no evidence of

that, and we have assurances from the people that are responsible that they

have disclosed these matters and it has been fixed up with the Tax Office. Now,

that is what we have, and that is what I accept.

Thank you.