Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015 implements three 2015-16 budget measures: the multinational anti-avoidance law; country-by-country reporting and new transfer pricing documentation standards; and stiffer penalties to combat tax avoidance and profit shifting.

Whilst I have been listening intently to my colleagues and those opposite on this bill, I must say it was an excellent contribution, as always, by the member for Lyne. I have been reading a couple of documents: one, The

Financial Review's Smart Invest or November 2015 publication talks about the search for growth, where to find it and how to get on board; and the State of Regional Australia 2015an inaugural report in which Mike Mrdak, the Secretary to the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, in his foreword says:

An evidence based understanding of a region’s performance should underpin community development initiatives, policy settings and investment strategies which can enable a region to prosper and harness the opportunities associated with its own unique advantages.

This got me thinking about my own unique electorate—the Riverina—and the opportunities that could be harnessed, are being harnessed and will be harnessed in the future. Those opportunities are enhanced when everybody—taxpayers, businesses—is paying their fair share of tax. In the Riverina, I would like to think that everyone who is earning an income, be it a taxpayer or indeed a company, is paying their fair share of tax.

This legislation goes to the heart of those multinational corporations which are not paying their fair share of tax. Before I discuss the substance of the bill, I will just talk about a few of the contributions made, particularly, by those opposite. The member for Wakefield, in his speech, talked about the revenue that could be raised from this bill being one less dollar that Australian taxpayers and businesses have to pay. That is not correct. It is not one less dollar that Australian taxpayers and businesses will have to pay; it is one more dollar that we will collect, that should be being collected and that should have always been collected. It is not one less dollar that is going to have to be paid; it is one more dollar that will be paid.

The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection last Wednesday, 14 October, asked how many members opposite had been involved in a small business and just one put up their hand—the member for Melbourne Ports. I appreciate that the member for Parramatta may well have been involved in a small business in her past before she came to this place, but this goes to the heart of the matter. When the same question was asked of the coalition, just about everybody put their hand up. We understand business. We understand the need for tax collection. We understand the need for equitable distribution of that tax which is collected. But the member for Wakefield just does not get it. He said that Senator Dastyari is doing a good job in this space. I can tell you that the good senator is running around at the moment claiming that he understands the Murray-Darling Basin—that is far from the truth.

This particular bill is important. Australia has been a world leader in ensuring that we get on top of multinationals avoiding paying their tax. The key driver of this was the member for North Sydney, the former Treasurer, who led the way during Australia's presidency of the G20. Last year at a doorstop interview on 9 December, he was asked: 'Do you think it's a risk that Australian companies that are operating overseas in other jurisdictions could face a backlash from other agencies or countries that are not as proactive on base erosion and profit shifting?' He talked about this being a challenge. He said that there were large number of Australian companies that operated overseas and emphasised that that is why we need to work collectively and globally to address this. We did that at the G20. We started the process off. Australia's reputation on the international stage is very good. It follows our excellent presidency of G20. The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, spoke very highly of the work of the member for North Sydney, Joe Hockey, in heading G20.

The member for North Sydney spoke in an interview with David Speers of Sky News three days after that initial interview on 9 December. On 12 December he said in answer to a question about the Google tax of measures to tackle multinationals which do not pay what they ought to in Australia:

It has got to be coordinated global response and this is why the previous Government failed. They had announcements that they never legislated and they never had any coordinated global action. We are determined to work with other countries. We have used the leadership of the G20 this year to get that coordinated global action. We have got a number of fronts that we are dealing with. Firstly, we are working with the OECD on what is known as the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Plan. We are half way through that, which means there are common rules around the world, particularly in tax havens that ensure that people do start to pay their fair share of tax.

The good work done by the member for North Sydney was certainly front and centre of the G20 in Istanbul, Turkey, which I attended on 9 and 10 February. In session 6 on international tax—

See this speech in context