Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Braddon for his question. In fact, we were in his electorate only last week at a community cabinet meeting where we heard loud and clear from a number of local businesses how they appreciate an Australian government that gets out there in support of local business to protect jobs in local communities, as we have been doing throughout the global financial crisis and, with reforms to the economy, how we will continue to do so into the future as well. I remember that we spent some time with a number of businesses in the honourable member’s electorate. Penguin Composites comes to mind, a company which has benefited from a co-investment with the Australian government in the expansion of its operations.

The member for Braddon asked a question about tax reform and where it fits within the overall priorities of the government, and responses to it. The first responsibility of government is to keep the Australian economy strong. That is what this government is committed to. We have done so by keeping Australia out of recession. We have done so also through a budget which halves our net peak debt and brings the budget back to surplus in three years time—three years ahead of time. Furthermore, the strength of the economy in the future depends on the continued reform of our economy—reforms in productivity, reforms in workforce participation, and reforms also in regulation and in tax.

On the question of tax, if the opposition blocks this tax reform, Australia will look back in 10 years time and see that another opportunity to strengthen our economy and invest in our competitiveness in the future was passed up. No. 1, with this tax reform, we are aiming at boosting the overall national competitiveness of Australia. We are doing that by bringing down the company tax rate by two percentage points—

See this speech in context