Senator DEAN SMITH (Western Australia) (12:41): The Treasury Laws Amendment (2022 Measures No. 3) Bill 2022 collates a number of miscellaneous Treasury measures. Schedule 1 of the bill amends the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act to double the maximum financial penalties for contraventions of provisions that relate only to residential land. Foreign investment plays an important and beneficial role in the Australian economy. However, it is necessary to regulate certain kinds of foreign investment to ensure the proposed investments are not contrary to Australia's national interest. The Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act provides that a foreign person must seek foreign investment approval before acquiring an interest in Australian residential land. It also imposes obligations on a foreign person who acquires an interest in that residential land. The Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act contains specific penalties for contraventions of residential land provisions. The amendments double the maximum financial penalties in the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act for contraventions of residential land provisions. The purpose of this increase to financial penalties is to ensure that these penalties effectively deter foreign persons from contravening the residential land provisions. Noncompliance with the residential land provisions may have a significant impact on Australia's housing stock and housing affordability, and foreign persons can make a significant financial gain by obtaining an interest in Australian residential property. In the view of the coalition, foreign investors that break the law absolutely should be punished. It is appropriate that the costs of administering our foreign investment scheme be borne by investors and not Australians. To the extent that this measure boosts housing supply and supports Australians getting into a home, the coalition welcomes it. The coalition has a strong record of delivering more housing and more Australians into homes. We have a strong record of helping first home buyers enter the market. Around 60,000 Australians have purchased a home or reserved a place under the coalition's Home Guarantee Scheme. To support even more Australians into homeownership the coalition more than doubled the Home Guarantee Scheme to make available up to 50,000 places each year. As part of the 2022-23 budget, the coalition promised to expand the First Home Guarantee by providing 35,000 places each year from 1 July 2022, up from 10,000 per year; to expand the Family Home Guarantee, with 5,000 guarantees made available each year, enabling single parents with dependants to purchase a home sooner with a deposit of two per cent; and, finally, to establish a new regional home guarantee, with 10,000 guarantees available each year to support eligible homebuyers in regional areas. These measures followed the successful HomeBuilder program, which supported over $33 billion of residential construction activity through the pandemic by providing grants for new homes and substantial renovations. Over 137,000 HomeBuilder applications had been received as of the last budget. Denita Wawn, the CEO of Master Builders Australia, has said: Without HomeBuilder, thousands of small builder and tradie businesses would have gone under and hundreds of thousands of jobs would have been lost. In the last term of parliament the coalition supported more than 300,000 Australians into homes. The coalition also recognises the importance of access to social and affordable housing for those vulnerable Australians. The coalition announced in government additional low-cost financing for community housing providers to support social and affordable housing by increasing the guarantee of the liabilities of the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation by $500 million. This is expected to allow the Housing Finance and Investment Corporation to support another 2½ thousand social and affordable dwellings in addition to the 14,000 dwellings they've already supported in just three years. So while the coalition does not oppose this change, we do note that the impact of this policy appears to be incredibly modest. Schedule 2 of the bill amends the Taxation Administration Act 1953 to allow protected information to be disclosed to Australian government agencies for the purpose of administering major disaster support programs approved by the minister. Schedule 3 of the bill amends schedule 5 of the Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus (Measures No. 2) Act. This amendment will extend a temporary mechanism for responsible ministers to make alternative arrangements for meeting information and documentary requirements under Commonwealth legislation, including requirements to give information and to produce, witness and sign documents in response to the challenges posed by COVID-19. The amendment extends the date that this mechanism sunsets to 31 December next year. Schedule 5 to the Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus (Measures No. 2) Act is a general instrument making power that enables the minister to make a determination adjusting arrangements for meeting information and documentary requirements under Commonwealth legislation in response to COVID-19. This mechanism has been included in schedule 5 of the coronavirus measures No. 2 act as a temporary measure, terminating at 31 December this year. In light of the ongoing nature of COVID-19 both in Australia and globally and its effects on the ability of individuals to move freely, the power to amend arrangements for meeting information and documentary requirements remains necessary. Schedule 3 to the bill amends schedule 5 to the coronavirus act to extend the temporary mechanism and to provide determinations made by a responsible minister do not operate after these sunsetting arrangements. The coalition implemented this measure as part of our response to COVID-19. The coalition continued to support sensible and measured responses to manage the risk that COVID-19 poses while noting that the environment that we are operating in today is significantly different from that just two years ago. When COVID-19 first broke out there was no vaccine and there was no knowledge of the risks of the virus, and around the world we saw hospitals overwhelmed as the disease spread rapidly. In Australia it was estimated that deaths could be in the tens of thousands and that the economic impacts could be severe, with unemployment projected by the Treasury to reach 15 per cent. The coalition's pandemic response put Australia in good stead for today, saved lives and supported our economic recovery. Measures like this played a crucial role in keeping government going through this uncertainty. Measures like this worked alongside our economic support package to keep the country moving forward despite the challenges of the pandemic. Our economic support through COVID-19 kept Australians in jobs. Australian householders and businesses have been supported by a range of measures announced since the beginning of the pandemic. I am confident that in hindsight people see them as necessary and proportionate. So, the coalition welcomes this measure. Finally, schedule 4 of the bill and the Income Tax Amendment (Labour Mobility Program) Bill make amendments to reduce the tax rate on certain income earned by foreign resident workers participating in the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme from a marginal rate starting at 32½ per cent to a flat 15 per cent. Schedule 5 of the bill amends the act to provide for an alternative annual performance test also for faith based products. APRA may determine that a product is a faith based product if a trustee for the product provides APRA with a valid application. The bill contains a number of worthwhile measures. Indeed, we believe that the most important part of this bill is the income tax amendments to facilitate the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme, a coalition initiative and one we are proud of. However, the coalition does wish to raise some concerns with schedule 5 of the bill, which implements a Labor election promise to exempt faith based superannuation products from the Your Future, Your Super performance test. A faith based super product that fails the performance test will be reassessed by APRA through a secondary test that is adjusted to reflect the fund's faith based investment strategy. If the fund fails the secondary test it is subject to the same processes as any other fund under the Your Future, Your Super performance test. If it passes the secondary test, it has no further obligations to disclose its performance to its customers. Australia's $3 trillion superannuation system is the fourth largest in the world and is responsible for managing the retirement savings of over 16 million Australians. Your Future, Your Super measures are about modernising and improving the superannuation system to ensure it is working harder for Australians. This included the performance test measures designed to ensure that funds are held to account for underperformance and to protect customers from poor outcomes. The performance test holds funds accountable for the outcomes they're delivering to their members. It measures a fund's net investment performance against an objective benchmark tailored to their investment strategy and measures their administration fees against their peers. That is the coalition's contribution. I might just add that the coalition does intend to move a number of amendments, one in my name and one in Senator Hume's name.