Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

is to grow our economy so we grow revenues. You grow small businesses into larger businesses. You ensure that Australians can increase their earning capacity, that companies can profit more, that wage earners can earn more on their wages. When you achieve economic policies that increase the earnings of Australians, that is how you raise your revenue. You do not do it by jacking up taxes like those and others have suggested.

What we have done on taxes is make sure that Australians pay their fair share of tax. We have made sure that multinationals will be paying their fair share of tax. We are the party that brought into this place legislation that now does make multinationals pay their fair share of tax—legislation that was opposed by all of them who were in the last parliament. And they still sit there today, opposing this government's measures to ensure that multinationals pay their fair share of tax. In the budget we went further, with the diverted profits tax, which will ensure that those seeking to divert and shift profits offshore will not be able to do that. They will face higher rates of penalty tax to ensure that multinationals operating in Australia are paying their fair share of tax.

For foreign investors, who are also investing in Australia, we now have a tax deed, which is a tax to major foreign investments in this country, which was applied by myself as Treasurer to ensure that if you sought to shift profits off Australian shores as a result of your investments you would not just face the full force of the new multinational tax anti-avoidance laws—you would also be facing a divestment of your asset, as well.

What did those opposite do on these issues, when they were there for six years? Absolutely nothing! What did they do in opposition, when the government brought forward measures to secure the integrity of the tax base? They voted against it.

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