Senate Inquiry releases Report into the Safe Harbour legislation

The Senate Economics Legislation Committee today released its report (available here) into the Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Enterprise Incentives No. 2) Bill 2017 – the Safe Harbour legislation – following referral on 15 June, as discussed here.

The committee acknowledged that a number of submissions had identified potential improvements to the legislation – but it declined to recommend any changes.  The Committee noted that there had been ‘broad support’ for the bill, and explained that it had formed the view that matters raised in submissions ‘would best be clarified in regulations.’

In practical terms that appears to eliminate any possibility that the ipso facto stay will be extended to apply to contracts entered into before the commencement, which in my view (as discussed here) is a very significant missed opportunity.

There was a single recommendation “The committee recommends that the bill be passed.”