Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister update the House on action the government is taking to make Australia more competitive in the global economy? How does this compare with the actions of other countries?

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

I thank the member for Canning for his question and for his powerful advocacy for more jobs in his electorate. Australia is an export oriented market economy. We're dependent on trade and investment for economic growth and more jobs. To ensure that our companies and businesses can remain competitive, the Turnbull government is proposing to cut corporate tax rates alongside what is happening globally, and it's instructive to see what comparable economies are doing.

Last year I was in Dublin and I was told constantly about the huge economic resurgence in Ireland as a result of cutting their corporate tax rate to 12½ per cent. Last month I was in the United States, and business leaders spoke about the surge in business confidence and the new jobs as a result of the Trump administration's announcement that corporate tax rates will be cut to 21 per cent. In the United Kingdom the government is aiming for a corporate tax rate of 17 per cent. Across Europe they are cutting their corporate tax rates—for example, in France and Belgium. So our competitors, our trading partners, are cutting corporate tax rates, and, if we do not act, Australia will have the second-highest corporate tax rate in the OECD. These other nations, our competitors, are cutting corporate tax rates because they know it leads to more investment and more jobs.

The Turnbull government have announced that we will aim to reduce our corporate tax rate to 25 per cent, and that was the policy of the Labor Party. I'm reminded that on 22 September 2015 the shadow Treasurer said that Labor accepts that company tax hurts workers most—that 'Labor accepts that company tax falls hardest on workers, and aims for a 25 per cent company tax rate to spur economic growth'. That was the view of the shadow Treasurer expressing Labor's economic plans.

Today, to listen to the Leader of the Opposition and his captain's pick for the seat of Batman talking about their economic plan of opposing corporate tax cuts, of re-regulating the labour market, of considering nationalising the electricity grid and of attacking private sectors, you'd have to believe that the Leader of the Opposition is now inspired by the populist socialism of Venezuela. What we are hearing from the Leader of the Opposition is more Hugo Chavez and far less Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.