Tim Hammond (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why is it that under this Prime Minister companies like James Hardie pay no tax, but workers on award wages end up with a pay cut?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. My government is cracking down on multinational tax avoidance in a manner that has no precedent. Our multinational tax avoidance legislation went through at the end of 2015. The Labor Party voted against it. Can you believe that? They did not want multinationals to have to pay all the tax they should. The diverted profits tax, which I will ask the Treasurer to speak about now, is one of the most far-reaching multinational tax avoidance measures in any comparable country. It is a bold move, which will look into the affairs of multinational companies and make sure that they pay their tax.

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

As the Prime Minister has said, the diverted profits tax will be voted on in the Senate today. The diverted profits tax bills on the multinational anti-avoidance legislation, which were passed through this chamber and voted against by those opposite, provide a penalty tax to multinationals who seek to shift their profits offshore and not pay their fair share of tax. What we see on the issue of taxation is a Labor Party who say one thing and do another. They say they think companies should pay less tax, but they vote against it. They say they want multinationals to pay their tax, but they vote against it. It is this government that cut personal income taxes for workers in this country—people on average weekly earnings; ordinary time earnings. In our budget, we provided a tax cut to those workers. Some 500,000 people were not going onto the second highest marginal tax rate because this government took action. So when it comes to taxes, we think they should be lower, but we think everybody should be paying them and that is what our legislation does.

The Labor Party talk one game, but when it comes to acting on their convictions they are all at sea, because the Leader of the Opposition is nothing more than a rank opportunist. The Australian people have worked him out. They know he will say whatever, do whatever and switch whatever position he has to. One day, he says he wants to restore penalty rates. The next day, he is doing a deal with big companies to trade away penalty rates. The Leader of the Opposition has been worked out by the Australian people. They know that he cannot be trusted. Those who sit behind him know he cannot be trusted either.