Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services. Will the minister update the House on how the government is ensuring the integrity of the tax system? How does a fair tax system aid the delivery of essential services?

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the very excellent member for Boothby, and I appreciate her question. The Turnbull government is determined to make sure that everyone pays the right amount of tax so that we can continue to ensure that we guarantee the essential services that Australians—millions of Australians—rely on. On this side of the chamber we believe in the integrity of the taxation system. On that side of the chamber they simply believe in higher taxes.

We have improved the integrity of the tax system by creating some of the strongest multinational anti-avoidance laws in the world. We have also introduced the diverted profits tax and the multinational anti-avoidance tax, and that has seen an additional $7 billion of sales returned each year to the Australian tax base. We have established the Tax Avoidance Taskforce which has resulted in the Australian Taxation Office raising $5 billion in liabilities from large corporations and multinationals across the last 18 months or so, and we are building on this success in this budget by introducing further measures to ensure that businesses are paying the right amount of tax. In particular, we are shining a light on those people who might be ripping off their fellow Australians through the black economy, and I'd like to congratulate Michael Andrew, who led the Black Economy Taskforce review, for the important work that he has done. We are cracking down on the illicit tobacco market and preventing the flow of funds to organised crime syndicates by establishing the Illicit Tobacco Taskforce. We are introducing a $10,000 cash payment limit to crack down on money laundering by criminal syndicates and gangs, and we are protecting honest Australians from being ripped off by those who are trying to cheat on their tax, or get a discount by letting someone else cheat on their tax.

While the Turnbull government has taken this strong action and introduced tough new laws, Labor, I am sad to say, did virtually nothing to combat tax avoidance when in government. They voted against our multinational anti-avoidance laws, and they were against our country-by-country reporting regime. If that wasn't bad enough, Labor now wants to hit aspirational Australians with a tsunami of more than $220 billion of higher or new taxes—higher taxes on companies and on investments, higher taxes on savings and on superannuation, higher taxes on family businesses, and let us not forget the $56 billion retiree cash grab, which, despite all of their laughable guarantees, hurts pensioners and low-income earners. The choice could not be clearer: we're for integrity of the tax system; they're for higher tax.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. This morning the Treasurer introduced legislation to implement the government's entire seven-year personal income tax scheme. Already today, at the National Press Club, the Treasurer has refused to say what the year-by-year cost of that scheme is, because he said those costings were 'unreliable'. If the Treasurer won't say what the year-by-year cost of the scheme is, and he also says the costings are unreliable, how can the Treasurer ask the parliament to vote for it?

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

The shadow Treasurer can try and be as tricky and shifty as the Leader of the Opposition with his smarmy approach to stacked-tax policy, but the answer is simple: the cost of the measure is $140 billion over the next 10 years, which is more than twice the relief that has been provided to companies under our enterprise tax plan. We are putting priority on ensuring that tax relief is provided to those on low and middle incomes, and that cost, as I said, is $13.4 billion over the forward estimates—$140 billion over the next 10 years. If the opposition wants to deny Australians lower taxes, then they should just be honest about it. They shouldn't come in here looking for excuses. They will look for any excuse not to reduce taxes for Australians. The bill's on the table. Vote for it or oppose it. Whichever way you do it, the Australian people know where you sit on tax. Where they sit on tax is: higher taxes under Labor; lower taxes under the Liberal and National Party. You're making that very clear to the Australian people.