Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

SECRET FILES
ALLEGATION
Federal Departments
Charged
CANBERRA, September 22.
Charges that secret Taxation
Department files were being made
available to the Department of
War Organisation of Industry and
that secret information obtained
by the Prices Branch was being
passed on to the Taxation Depart
ment were made by Mr. Abbott
(CP, NSW) in the House of Repre
sentatives today.
Mr. Abbott quoted from a Prices
Branch circular, which said that
a close liaison should be estab
lished between the Prices Branch
and the Department of War Or
ganisation of Industry.
He rcadr—"The information available
in me Prices Branch wiU normally cover
most of the material required by the
Department of war Organisation of In
dustry to make a rough Judgment as to
whether economies are possible through
rationalisation or through increa—ro
eSciency. . „ ,
"It would be undesirable to duplicate
cost enquiries and it would be relatively
easy to ensure in the prices investiga
tions that any InformaUon required by
ille Departmxient of War Organisation of
Industry and not available at present
can be coUected by the prices officers
when reviewing the industries* applica
tions for relief. The advantage of this
procedure as regards Information ano*
the establish—er—t of I—lson officers
would be that the Departnrr—it of War Or
ga—irsa tion of "industry could be kept in
formed from the very begu—ting as to
the nature of the applications from any
Industry for a subsidy.
"Apart from the general e-*rtrrecy pro
visions of the prices regulations, the
prices coi——tsslon*—- now has .-recess to
the taxation returns of companies and
individuals. Arrangements have also
been made for the information in the
prices branch to be supplied on request
to the Taxatian Gom-n—sl oner. It Is
most important that the secrecy pro
visions of the prices regulations should
be observed as strictly as are the secrecy
provisions on the Taxation Act."
??Two-Way Traffic"
Mr. Abbott said that the circu
lar indicated tbat information de
rived from taxpayers' secret files
was being made available in
directly to officers of the Depart
ment of War Organisation of In
dustry and that, without any legal
authority, secret information ob
tained by the Prices Branch was
being supplied to taxation officials.
He under-stood that it was to
bave been a one-way traffic from
tbe Taxation Department to the
Prices Commissioner, but by some
secret arrangement a two-way
traffic bad been established.
-The sooner tlie law of tbe coun
try is obeyed and the healthy light
of the sun is allowed to penetrate
departmental activities the better,"
he said.
Mr. Beasley replied that the
stabilisation scheme involved large
sums of money and the Treasurer
probably felt it necessary to take
all steps to ascertain tbat any
claims for subsidies were bona fide
and that means were not being
created to obtain advances with
out justification.
Mr. Abbott—There is no sanc
tion for the illegal distribution of
information coming from tax
payers' files.
Mr. Beasley—Those involved
probably have nothing to hide.
What you have raised will be ex -
amined and the law will prevail.
Mr. Abbott said that he took ex
ception to the access being granted
to taxation files. The Income Tax
Assessment BUI No. 2 introduce
by the Treasurer proposed to em
power the secretaries of tbe De
partments of Defence. Navy and
Air to have access to them.
$