Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to add a few comments to follow up comments made by the members for Fenner and Kingsford Smith. Firstly, the member for Fenner made the allegation that the coalition's plans to reduce the corporate rate of tax in this nation are budget busting. The member of Fenner should know that every cent of that is already in the budget, and we will have that budget back into balance and then into surplus very soon.

Secondly, the other point that I think needs to be made is that it appears that we have members of the Labor Party that are living in a fool's paradise if they think that we do not have to respond to the US reduction in the rate of corporate tax. The US are reducing their rate of corporate tax to 21 per cent—in the world's largest economy. But they are not the only nation that are reducing their rate of corporate tax. It is also the UK and France. In fact, over the last decade, we have seen almost every major OECD nation reduce their rate of corporate tax. We understand that we as a nation need to be competitive to attract investment and drive jobs growth to drive the prosperity of this nation. Anyone that thinks that we can just sit on our hands and watch our global competitors reduce their corporate rate of tax while we do nothing is living in a fool's paradise.

But there are other risks to our nation's competitiveness. It is not only that the Labor Party does not understand the importance of our corporate rate of tax being internationally competitive. The other threat we have seen in the last 24 hours is the real sovereign risk that comes with the conduct of the Leader of the Opposition. Today's papers are reporting a duplicitous stance by the Leader of the Opposition on the Carmichael coalmine, telling one group of CFMEU workers and those in Northern Queensland that he's in favour of the mine but telling others that he's against it.

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