Page 4528 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 14 December 1993
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Information for School Leavers
MS ELLIS: My question is directed to the Minister for Education. I ask the Minister: Is the ACT Government taking any steps to provide information to 1993 school leavers on study, training and employment options in the ACT?
MR WOOD: Yes, Madam Speaker. Last year we successfully began an information service and, in the package students take with them from school at the end of the year and in the further information they get, we advised students that such a service operates. It may seem a light matter to some members opposite, but the fact is that we are talking about a time when things can move fairly rapidly as universities put out their acceptances and people take them up. In many circumstances they do not do so but take other options. Vacancies become available, and students may slot in somewhere else. It is a fast moving time.
We found last year that the service we provided with the Catholic Education Office, non-government schools, the Australian National University and the Institute of Technology was much appreciated by students. It facilitated a great deal of their enrolment processes. There will be a telephone hot line on Thursday and Friday, 13 and 14 January, concerning change of preference of students, and there will be an office open in the Melbourne Building on 25 January and a few days after that for further details that may emerge. Students will find this very useful, and we are trying to publicise it as much as possible.
Payroll Tax - Superannuation Contributions
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, through you, I ask a question of the Treasurer. I am sure, Ms Follett, that you will have read an article in yesterday's Canberra Times that talked about superannuation. It states:
The ACT Revenue Office, unlike the Revenue Offices of the major states of NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, regards superannuation contributions made on a "salary sacrifice" to be taxable wages.
It then explains what a salary sacrifice is, but it then goes on and it says:
The ACT Revenue Office is also considering including all superannuation payments - including superannuation required under industry awards or by the Superannuation Guarantee Charge - as wages for ACT payroll tax purposes.
This is contrary to what the States do. It concludes:
Remarkably, the ACT Government is either oblivious of the federal and other state governments' "hands-off" approach in relation to the "sacred cow" of superannuation, or reluctant to give up their perceived opportunity to raise further revenue.
Does that accurately describe the ACT Government's approach to taxation, through the payroll tax system, on compulsory superannuation payments?
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