NSW: Roozendaal stands by Henry tax review paper

AAP General News (Australia)
08-13-2009
NSW: Roozendaal stands by Henry tax review paper

By Nick Ralston

SYDNEY, Aug 13 AAP - NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal is standing by a submission he made
to a major national tax review despite coalition and Greens claims it was inadequate.

The NSW government was initially accused of failing to make a submission to the Henry
review of the Australian taxation system after none appeared on the review's official
website.

But it has since been shown that NSW submitted a 295-page report by the state's Independent
Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) on NSW tax issues.

The IPART report was commissioned by former treasurer Michael Costa in 2007, before
the Henry review of federal and state taxation was announced by the federal government.

Mr Roozendaal said the IPART report was completed just as submissions for the Henry
review were about to close.

He said it was an appropriate submission that looked at all aspects of taxation.

"We commissioned this before they announced the Henry tax review," he told reporters.

"Once they announced that in the May budget last year, it was taken into account in
the writing of this.

"A number of chapters were then improved or changed to deal with the issues raised
by the national tax review."

He said he did not know why the submission had not appeared on the Henry review website,
adding he had received an acknowledgment letter in November last year from review chairman
Ken Henry.

But Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said the IPART report was about NSW taxes and
the government had failed to make a submission that specifically addressed the issues
of the Henry review.

Mr O'Farrell said the failure followed reported flaws in NSW's submission to Infrastructure
Australia, when the state was chasing funding for projects.

As a result, NSW received only one per cent of total rail and road funding in the federal
budget, he said.

Greens MP John Kaye said Mr Roozendaal had only "recycled" the IPART report when every
other state had written submissions tailored to the review.

"The treasurer has embarrassed NSW," Dr Kaye said.

"He recycled the IPART report that was written before the worst of the global financial crisis.

"NSW's only formal input to the National Tax Review is a set of recommendations about
what the NSW government should do."

AAP nr/hn/jl/mn

KEYWORD: TAX NSW

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