The A-G announced the release of a discussion paper on changes to bankruptcy laws that contains options and invites suggestions to strengthen the Bankruptcy Act to address the problem.

His comments come after a report in The Australian last week that quoted second commissioner of taxation Gregory Farr, who told a parliamentary inquiry that barristers were the worst tax avoiders compared with other professionals.

“Although we find some instances in each of those [other professions] where people have set out to avoid the payment of tax, there is not the same level of systemic issue that we have found with barristers,” Farr told the newspaper.

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Amendments targeting this issue were released as an exposure draft in mid 2004, but were later withdrawn. Ruddock said the Government listened to concerns about the previous anti-avoidance proposals and now invites further comment from stakeholders on revision of the changes.