Senate Forces Henry to Appear to Explain New Super Tax
Thu, 13 May 2010
The Senate has today voted that the Secretary of the Treasury, Dr Ken Henry, appear before the Senate Economics Legislation Committee sometime before June 30 to explain the new Super Tax on Australia’s mining industry, and more broadly, the Henry Review of Taxation.
“The Opposition does not begrudge Dr Henry an overseas holiday – we’re sure he has earned it”, said Senator David Bushby, Coalition member of the Economics Committee, Chair of the Coalition Economics Policy Committee and mover of the motion.
“We have sought private clarification from the Assistant Treasurer’s office as to the nature and timing of the trip, but have not been satisfied that Dr Henry’s absence is unavoidable.
“So the question is - why has this holiday been taken right during Estimates?
“It has long been that the budget is in the second week of May and Estimates has been two weeks after that – I am sure that could have been worked around during his planning.
“This will be the last Estimates before the election and we would expect to be able to question the author of the Henry Review about his recommendations – this is the first and only opportunity to do so before the election.
“The motion was supported by all parties except the Government, who are clearly desperate to avoid scrutiny of their new super tax and why they failed to take notice of the vast majority of Dr Henry’s recommendations.”
As a result of the Senate vote, a separate committee hearing involving Dr Henry will be held sometime before 1 July this year.
Click on this button to bookmark & share.
Subscribe to the RSS feed for latest news releases.