The University of Adelaide Law School was proud to host the 27th Australasian Tax Teachers’ Association (ATTA) conference on 19 to 21 January 2015. The conference was very successful with over 100 registrants, six Keynote Plenary presentations and 70 academic and PhD presentations.
The following Keynote Plenary speakers and Conference Dinner speaker shared their insights about the theme of the conference: Tax – “It’s time” for change:
20 January – Justice Richard Edmonds of the Federal Court in Sydney, Second Commissioner Andrew Mills of the Australian Taxation Office, and Robert Jeremenko the Senior Tax Counsel of The Tax Institute.
21 January – Justice Anthony Besanko of the Federal Court in Adelaide, Scott Bryant Partner and Head of Legal and Tax, PricewaterhouseCoopers Adelaide (and the firm’s immediate past Managing Partner), and Professor Gordon Cooper, Adjunct Professor at the School of Taxation & Business Law at the University of NSW.
In addition, Alice McCleary, Independent Professional Company Director and a past National President of The Tax Institute, delivered a dinner speech at the Conference Dinner.
As well as receiving some wonderful feedback about the Keynote speeches and the conference overall, particular praise has been received about the Welcome Cocktails function held at the beautiful Ballroom of Ayers House, and about the Wolters Kluwer (CCH) Conference Dinner held at the newly developed Adelaide Oval Stadium.
We have received many examples of complimentary feedback from many attendees at the conference with a former ATTA President making the statement that the Adelaide ATTA conference was “fantastic. It was one of the best yet!” The following are two examples of feedback about the ATTA conference from some new attendees to the conference.
6 Impressions of my first ATTA Conference
The 2015 ATTA Conference was my first ATTA Conference and, I have to say, the best academic conference I have ever attended. As well as having an opportunity to hear from a broad range of excellent speakers, it was a great chance to have numerous stimulating discussions with other participants about reforming the Australian tax and superannuation systems.
As a first year PhD candidate at the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at ANU, I was able to learn more about research methods and the findings of relevant research about the Australia and New Zealand systems, as well as learn from research about other countries’ tax and transfer systems. I was also able to find some suitable experts to interview as part of my normative study on integrating the Australian tax and transfer systems. Everyone at the conference was very friendly and helpful.
Not only was the ATTA Conference a brilliant learning experience, we also had a lot of fun and had the chance to check out some of the sights of the lovely city of Adelaide. The cocktail party at historic Ayers House and conference dinner at the newly renovated Adelaide Oval, both events with fantastic musical entertainment, were MC’ed by Chair of the Conference Organising Committee, Domenic Carbone. Domenic has missed his calling as a comedian (although I’m sure his students appreciate his wit).
Congratulations to the 2015 ATTA Medal recipients, Bin Tran-Nam and Adrian Sawyer. Thanks very much to outgoing ATTA President, Helen Hodgson, and the ATTA Executive, as well Dominic and the conference organising committee and the University of Adelaide for such a memorable event. The 2015 ATTA Conference will be a hard act for Sydney to follow in 2016!
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The recent ATTA conference at Adelaide University was the first that I had attended.
On the opening day I found that the PhD presentations in the new and grand Braggs lecture theatre were thought provoking and informative. This was a great opportunity for attendees to participate by speaking with the ‘roaming mike’. In doing so, we provided valuable feedback to the presenters. Day 1 concluded with presentations from tax lecturers discussing challenges relating to taxation taught at universities. A highlight for me was Brett Freudenberg and Dale Pinto’s persuasive argument that the law of trusts is not sufficiently covered in the accounting curriculum at Australian universities. Those types of issues can impact on the nature and type of training that my employer provides to its staff, since many are graduates from courses taught by ATTA members.
I attended the welcome cocktail function at Ayers House which was great fun and a fantastic opportunity to network and liaise with tax educators from the tertiary and private sector. It was quite humbling with all the ‘doctors’ in the room. In doing so, I also found out what is involved in completing a PhD in taxation, perhaps even inspiring me to undertake that ‘marathon’ in the future.
There were just too many great presentations over the following two days for me to mention them all. Just a small selection of the highlights for me included listening to the views of Justice Richard Edmonds and Robert Jeremenko in relation to tax reform in Australia. And the presentations by Justice Besanko and Dr Anthony Ting in relation to recent reforms and an inherent limitation of the anti-avoidance rules in Part IVA. Professor Gordon Cooper’s speech on the history of taxation was also very entertaining.
Overall, it was such a great 3 days. Personally, it has been fourteen years since I had completed my first degree at Adelaide University, so it felt great to roam its grounds again and experience campus life. It really is such an impressive university and there had been significant upgrading of the facilities since I had left. The free coffee and great catering was the icing on the cake. Domenic Carbone, who was in fact my tax lecturer in 2001 and John Tretola did not miss a beat. They had done such a great job in organising the event. I’m sure I will be attending ATTA conferences in the future.”