Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am addressing directly some of the statements made by the member for North Sydney and the member for Dunkley on the issue of tax reform and the suggestions that have been made that this reform to counter tax avoidance and multinational profit shifting has somehow come out of the blue. It is important to understand the context of tax avoidance and multinational profit-shifting laws. Their broad context is a Labor legacy of tax reform.

We have been committed to good tax reform, guided by the experts. We, for example, followed through with fuel tax reforms that were brought into parliament by Peter Costello in 2003, supported by the opposition right up until the last minute, when they realised they could get some political mileage from backflipping on a Peter Costello reform—extraordinary stuff!

The reason we are committed to this bill to counter tax avoidance and multinational profit shifting is that we realise revenue must be raised as fairly as possible and must be spent as fairly as possible. That is why we have means tested the baby bonus, the private health insurance rebate and family tax payment part B. When the member for North Sydney went to London he talked about 'the age of entitlement'. When he came back to Australia he said that reducing the baby bonus for second and subsequent children was like China's one-child policy.

We need a bill to counter tax avoidance and multinational profit shifting because a strong tax system is essential to a fair society. We have to protect that revenue because if we do not then that means increasing taxes in other places. That is fundamentally the problem that the coalition has in so many of these areas. They are constantly saying that there are taxes they are going to reduce, that there are revenue measures they are going to oppose. The effect is that they now have a $70 billion hole in their costings—not my figure, a figure of the member for Goldstein, subsequently backed in a few days later by the member for North Sydney, who said, 'well, $50 billion, $60 billion, $70 billion', as though there really was not much difference. What is a spare $20 billion between friends? Let me be clear as to the implications.

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