Government to act on SACS salary sacrifice problem19 June 2008
By ASU - the social and community services (SACS) industry union
At a joint press conference in Canberra yesterday Treasurer Wayne Swan and Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin said they will act to fix proposed changes to the way income is calculated for the purpose of determining Family Assistance payments for social and community services (SACS) workers who have been utilising salary packaging because of the PBI status of their employer.
The Ministers say they are committed to addressing this issue as quickly as possible.
The changes, which were introduced by the Howard Government in the 2006-07 budget, are due to start from 1 July 2008. You can download the full transcript of the press conference below.
What could the Government do?
One of the options for the Government is to put a Bill urgently before Parliament in the next seven days to change the law so that employees of Public Benevolent Institution (PBI) status employers are not affected from 1 July 2008.
The Rudd Government does not control the Senate so it will need the agreement of the Liberal and National parties for any changes. The opposition parties have been silent on this issue so far. Given that they introduced the laws in the first place, we hope they do not block any measure that is proposed.
We will need to be ready to swing into action if the opposition parties decide to support the original laws.
NSW CARE Alliance backs campaign
The NSW CARE Alliance has written to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd about the salary sacrifice issue. The Alliance, which includes the ASU NSW & ACT (Services) Branch and all major NSW SACS employers and peak bodies has thrown their support behind the salary packaging campaign. You can download their letter below and click here to get more details about the Alliance.
Meanwhile, a Melbourne meeting of over 100 ASU members working in the housing sector yesterday passed the following resolution:
This meeting urges the Government to abandon its planned 1st July Legislation changes to salary packaging in the Community Services sector. The grossing up of salary packaging to calculate rebates for family tax benefit A & B and Child Care benefits will make our working families poorer and add to the homelessness crisis.
Media focus on our sector increases
This issue has received extensive media coverage during the last week, including some real life ASU member examples on the front page of today's edition of The Australian newspaper and in the letters pages of the Sydney Morning Herald.
Below is a selection of what the papers are saying:
- Changes sacrifice a salary - Stephen Lunn, The Australian, June 19, 2008
- Vow to save charity sector from 'savage' tax moves - Misha Schubert, The Age, June 19, 2008
- Thanks - tax changes will leave us worse off - Letters, Sydney Morning Herald, June 19, 2008 (third headline from the top)
- Family tax benefit payments to hit pay of over 200,000 - Sue Dunlevy, Daily Telegraph, June 18, 2008
- Low-paid workers to suffer - Nassim Khadem, The Age, June 18, 2008
- Low-paid workers hit by tax changes - Stephanie Peatling, SMH, June 18, 2008
- Tax change to hit charity staff - Ewin Hannan, The Australian, June 18, 2008
- Fringe benefits changes to hit low paid workers - ABC Online, Posted Jun 17, 2008, Updated Jun 17, 2008 10:59am AEST
- Union seeks fringe benefit tax changes - The Age, June 17, 2008
What can you do?
Make sure you check the ASU website regularly for updates and if you have not sent an email to the Federal Ministers to let them know what you think please do so now. The ASU has organised a template email that you can use to express your concerns. Many people have amended the email to let the Ministers know exactly how they will be financially affected. You can access the email template here:
Click here to send an email to the Ministers
For more information on the changes and to see the correspondence the ASU has sent, see our previous article here: Urgent information on salary packaging and SACS workers
Related Articles
|
