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

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on the government's actions to ease the tax burden on Australian business and how it is helping to drive jobs and growth in the Australian economy? How does this compare with alternative approaches?

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

I thank the member for Forde for his question. This side of the House believes in a lower tax burden on the Australian economy. That's why we're committed to ensuring that the tax burden doesn't rise above 23.9 per cent of the economy over the medium term. We're committed to that. The opposition is opposed to that. They will allow taxes to rise endlessly, as they propose to do. But, when it comes to corporate tax, our position is very straightforward. It's a very simple proposition: if you want businesses to pay workers more, you don't force them to pay the government more. It's pretty simple. If you want businesses to spend more on employing more Australians, you don't force them to spend more on higher taxes being paid to the government. If you want businesses to reinvest their earnings in their businesses so they can grow, expand and earn consistently higher profits so they can pay their workers more, you don't force them to hand over more of their earnings to the government in higher taxes. That's not a theory; that's just common sense. It is common sense that doesn't escape those on this side of the House, or the member for Forde in particular, but has completely escaped the opposition, who have lost their compass when it comes to managing the economy. They're stumbling around in this wilderness of economic policy, in a place where, many years ago, they used to have, in Hawke and Keating, what they referred to as their giants. They wouldn't be recognised in the Labor Party these days.

The Labor Party is about as useful to the economic debate in these times as a pig-shearing competition—lots of squealing and no wool! That's the contribution that has been made by the Labor Party when it comes to these issues. In trying to get these simple points across, the companies themselves have made it very clear. Incoming Woodside chairman and departing Wesfarmers chief executive, Richard Goyder, stated:

… I don't think business are going to have any option but to use some of the benefits of any tax reduction into paying more for people.

Business is making it very clear. BHP's CEO Andrew Mackenzie has said, 'We would invest more'. He said that if the Senate agreed:

… to reduce the corporate tax rate, it would make a strong contribution to Australian economic growth … you could see changes in a matter of months.

The Labor Party is standing between a wage rise and Australian workers. It is the Labor Party's policy to force governments to pay more rather than let those same companies pay their employees more. They have lost their economic compass. They have lost their way. I suggest they watch the Hawke retrospective. They might learn a thing or two about what Labor's economic policy used to be and no longer resembles.