Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Today the Senate passed Liberal government legislation that will ensure that the amount of taxation paid by private corporations with a turnover of more than $100 million a year will remain secret. Why is the Liberal government so committed to keeping the tax affairs of large private corporations a secret from Australians?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition has asked a question. Those on my left will cease interjecting!

Mr Watts interjecting—

The member for Gellibrand is warned!

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition, were he preparing to be Prime Minister, would be focused on ensuring that the revenue is protected and that all Australian taxpayers pay their fair share of tax, or pay their tax in accordance with the law. The disclosure arrangements that were imposed on private companies with a turnover of more than $100 million by the previous Labor government did not make any difference to the rate of tax collection. In fact, the Commissioner of Taxation, and his deputy, on several occasions said: 'It makes no difference to us because we have access to all of their accounts anyway'. There are no secrets from the taxation commissioner.

This had absolutely nothing to do with gathering tax. What it was calculated to do, however, was to prejudice medium-sized Australian private companies as against big multinationals and publicly listed companies. What that meant was that if you were a food manufacturer, a family business, and you were dealing with Coles or Woolworths, whose profits of course are a matter of public record because they are publicly listed companies, and you were negotiating with them, then Coles or Woolworths on the other side of the table would know everything about your affairs and be in an even stronger bargaining position.

And it underlines this fact: the Labor Party has never been comfortable with small or medium businesses. Labor—big Labor, big unions—like big business. They are always more comfortable with the big end of town. That is why, on penalty rates—look at all of the negotiations of penalty rates that labour unions have done with Woolworths and Coles and big employers. The union movement, the labour movement, despises enterprise, despises small business, cuddles up to big business. And their opposition to this absolutely appropriate change, which has no prejudice to taxation revenue collection, just confirms that the old industrial relations club, the big companies and the big unions, always have a vested interest—and it is not in the interests of small and medium businesses, which are the absolute heart of our parties, the Liberal and National parties!