Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

There is a global competition for capital, skills and talent. That's why Australian businesses must be able to compete globally to attract these resources from overseas and provide jobs and opportunities for our best and brightest talent here in Australia. I couldn't put it more succinctly than members of Labor's front bench. The member for McMahon, the shadow Treasurer, said on 11 July 2013:

I think we should have the ambition of lowering company tax. … because it does improve our international competitiveness.

He got it then. The Leader of the Opposition as Assistant Treasurer said to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Melbourne:

The Government's tax reform agenda has a strong focus on ensuring that Australia remains an attractive place to invest.

...      …   …

Cutting the company tax rate is an important step along this road.

We couldn't agree more. But yesterday the Leader of the Opposition went rogue. He went off the reservation when he turned around and said completely the opposite and committed Labor to increasing taxes on Australian businesses, thus putting at risk the livelihoods of millions of Australians across the country employed in small and medium-sized businesses. This was no brain snap. Upon reflection, the Labor Party and its major benefactor, the ACTU, have committed to a war on business. Comrade Sally McManus has often accused business of wage theft. She says that businesses act against the interests of their staff.

Last week I reminded the House of the most egregious example of a nation that has declared war on business, and yes, it's Venezuela. You will recall that the CFMEU is campaigning to have Australia embrace the policies of that brutal dictatorship. It seems that solidarity with Venezuela runs deep in the veins of the ALP. It was not so long ago that the ALP was urging for a guest-of-government invitation to be extended to Hugo Chavez, saying:

… we feel that our shared ideals of social justice and democracy bring us close together … what Venezuela has been able to achieve in so little time will be a source of inspiration and ideas for many in Australia.

I tell you what they've achieved: the wholesale destruction of their economy and the mass exodus of their talent. That's what the Leader of the Opposition offers Australia. (Time expired)

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