21st Mar 2018, 4:15 PM – Senate Motions - Taxation - Excess dividend imputation credits

The majority voted against this motion, which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the Australian Labor Party's proposed reforms to cash refunds for excess dividend imputation credits have been welcomed by groups as diverse as Industry Super Australia, private funds managers, the ACTU and former Liberal leader Professor John Hewson,

(ii) the reforms have been welcomed by the Australian Greens Finance spokesperson, Senator Hanson-Young, who stated that "I think actually Labor has done some good work here...the reality is this is just one area within the tax system that needs cleaning up if we're to have more justice and fairness in the system",

(iii) the Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Di Natale, contradicted Senator Hanson-Young, stating "the Greens do have concerns" with Labor's proposed reforms, and committed to "use our numbers in the Senate to fix it", and

(iv) in an article, Greens in 11th-hour bid for conservative vote in Batman, Senator Di Natale is quoted as saying "Those people who might be inclined to vote for one of the conservative parties here [or] might be inclined to stay at home, well here's your chance to say what you think about Bill Shorten's attack on so many people in this community"; and

(b) calls on all parties, especially those who say they are committed to progressive taxation, to support Labor's proposed reforms to cash refunds for excess dividend imputation credits.