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

On indulgence, Mr Speaker, I would like to acknowledge Liam, Zac, Warren, Brett, Dale and Michael—seafarers sacked from the MV Portland. My question is to the Prime Minister.

Government Member:

A government member interjecting—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left will cease interjecting. The Leader of the Opposition will ask his question.

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

My question is to the Prime Minister.

Government members interjecting—

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They have families, you know. They've got families.

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

Members on both sides will cease interjecting.

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

My question is still to the Prime Minister. TheAustralian Financial Review reports today that McDonald's halved its tax bill last year by funnelling payments through Singapore. Why does the Prime Minister have a plan to make Macca's customers pay a 15 per cent GST but no plan to deal with making sure that McDonald's pays its fair share of tax?

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

I do thank the honourable member for his question. I am not going to comment—nor would honourable members expect me to—on a newspaper report about a specific company's tax affairs. But let me just remind honourable members of this fact: when the government introduced an amendment to the taxation laws to combat multinational tax avoidance last year, the Labor Party voted against it.

Ms Butler interjecting—

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

The member for Griffith will leave under standing order 94(a).

The member for Griffith then left the chamber.

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

This law and these changes were designed to deal precisely with multinational companies shifting profits around the world and avoiding tax. It was part of an OECD and G20 combined effort to address this type of multinational tax avoidance. These big multinational companies have access, as I said earlier today, to mechanisms and arrangements that are not available to Australian taxpayers, to ordinary Australian businesses.

What this law provides is that businesses with a turnover of over $1 billion have to report how much tax they pay in every jurisdiction so that everybody will know how much they are paying. And when we look, under the new law, as to whether an arrangement is designed to avoid tax, instead of the old provision—which had been, obviously, the law of the land under the Labor government and previous governments—the purpose being that it had to have a sole or dominant test of tax avoidance, the new test is that tax avoidance is 'one of the principal purposes'. That makes it much, much more straightforward for the ATO to levy tax. The level of penalties has been doubled. The jurisdictions to which the laws used to apply were basically limited to no-tax or very-low-tax tax havens. Now, that restriction is no longer there.

So what the law did was give the Australian Taxation Office the 21st century tools to combat ingenious 21st century tax avoidance to collect that money. That is what the law did, and the Labor Party voted against it. They voted against it. They lined up with the multinational tax dodgers. They stood in the way of the ATO collecting the money we need for schools, for hospitals and for roads. They have no shame. They have lined up with the tax dodgers.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My constituency question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline the action our government is taking to enforce our tax laws and ensure that multinational companies pay the right amount of tax?

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

I thank the member for Forde for his question. In responding to his question, I repeat and echo the words of the Prime Minister, who has very well put out the case as to how the government has acted to put in place legislation which is now in effect from 1 January to do all of the things the Prime Minister has said. Those opposite voted against it. They voted against it in the other place. They voted against it in this place. They put forward a measure which they claimed—although they will not release their assumptions or costings on it in any way, shape or form—will raise $1.9 billion over the budget and forward estimates.

But they will be pleased to know this: based on what this government is already doing, and has been doing, in the area of combating multinational tax, during the 2015 financial year the ATO completed around 50 audits and 350 reviews of multinationals which raised $2.5 billion—in one year. What this government did was actually produce $2.5 billion in additional revenue by going after multinationals that were not paying their fair share of tax—and that was before the laws were introduced. Now, we have gone from 30 companies—30 companies we were looking at before that legislation—to 80 companies. Let me go further. The ATO still has 45 audits in progress, of which 12 are technology companies and three are in the pharmaceutical industry. The companies under audit are the household names you hear about—Chevron, Origin Energy, GlaxoSmithKline, Apple, Microsoft, Google, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. They have all reported that they are under audit for these things. In the courts, the ATO is challenging aggressive arrangements. The tax office successfully challenged in court and received positive decisions in respect of both Chevron and Orica last year.

Those opposite gasbag about it, but when it comes to voting on it they vote against it. On this side of the House, we say what we mean; we mean what we say. We put laws into this place which say we are going to make multinationals pay tax on the income they earn. People know that we mean that because we have put the laws in place and the resources into the ATO to make sure they can do just that. Two point five billion dollars in outcomes last year—of getting that revenue out of the multinationals—demonstrates what the government is doing.

We are deadly serious about this. We are outraged, like Australians are. But we are not just going to be outraged about it; we are going to do something about it—and we are doing something about it. We are getting the results, while those opposite just keep gasbagging.

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

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.