1.1
On 5 August 2021, the Senate referred the provisions of the Treasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures No. 5) Bill 2021 (the bill) to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by
20 August 2021.
1.2
On 20 August 2021, the committee provided a progress report outlining its intention to report on 27 August 2021. On 23 August 2021, the Senate granted the committee an extension of time to report to 27 August 2021. On 27 August the committee provided a progress report requesting a further extension of time to report until 30 August 2021.
1.3
Schedule 1 to the bill seeks to implement the Australian Screen Production Incentive Reforms set out in the 'Media Reforms Package – Screen Sector Support' as part of the 2020–21 budget. Schedule 1 would amend the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to increase the producer offset for films that are not feature films released in cinemas. It would also make a number of threshold and integrity amendments across all three screen tax offsets that comprise the Australian Screen Production Incentive Scheme.
1.4
Schedule 2 to the bill seeks to integrate the Australian Government's corporate insolvency reforms, which commenced in January 2021, across relevant Commonwealth legislation.
1.5
Schedule 3 to the bill makes a range of miscellaneous and technical amendments to laws within the Treasury portfolio to improve the laws and ensure they operate as intended.
1.6
In accordance with its usual practice, the committee advertised the inquiry on its website and wrote to relevant stakeholders inviting submissions by 10 August 2021.
1.7
The committee received 79 public and name withheld submissions which are listed at Appendix 1 and are available on the committee's website. This includes 37 form letters that were accepted as public, name withheld or confidential submissions on the basis of the additional information they provided about the impact of the bill.
1.8
In total, 65 form letters were received by the committee. The form letters were identical in content, with some including personal vignettes of varying length and detail. As noted above, 37 form letters were accepted as submissions and the remaining 28 were acknowledged as form letters.
1.9
The committee also held a public hearing on 20 August 2021 in Canberra. A list of the witnesses who gave evidence at the hearing is listed at Appendix 2.
1.10
This report comprises three chapters. Chapter 2 outlines the background to the bill and its key provisions. Chapter 3 examines the principal issues raised by stakeholders and sets out the committee view.
1.11
References to the committee Hansard transcripts in this report are to the proof Hansard. Page numbers may vary between the proof and official Hansard transcripts.
1.12
The committee thanks those individuals and organisations who contributed to this inquiry by preparing written submissions and giving evidence at the public hearing.