Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I often think that the media and even some members of this place don't have enough faith in the people that we represent. We hear too often, despite the repeated evidence to the contrary, that populist political parties and simplistic slogans work because ordinary Australians are not engaged enough to fully understand complex political issues. The shifty Leader of the Opposition is certainly relying on this assumption when he tries to persuade the public that Labor can make irresponsibly large cuts to personal taxes, wildly increase spending and rapidly reduce the deficit all at once. You'd have to be pretty disengaged to buy that sort of dishonest fantasy economics. I think anyone who has ever had a bank account or a household budget to manage would see right through that one straightaway.

This week we have had clear evidence that the people of Australia are listening carefully to our nation's economic debate and that they understand the realities very well. Despite the dishonest rhetoric of members opposite, we learnt from Newspoll on Monday that 63 per cent of Australians favour executing the government's full ten-year plan for corporate tax relief. Australians understand that tax relief is not a giveaway. It is not the Government's money to give away. Tax relief simply means allowing ordinary Australians to keep more of their own money and spend it on the things that they really need. Tax relief means allowing Australian businesses to keep more of the money they earn and invest it in creating more jobs for working Australians.

Nine out of 10 Australians work for a private sector business, and they have already seen firsthand the benefits of the initial phases of the government's enterprise tax plan. Our company tax cuts for businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million a year have seen more than 1,000 new jobs created every day during the past 12 months. Three-quarters of those jobs have been full time. Since the coalition government was elected, more than one million new jobs have been created, transforming lives all over the country and delivering the lowest percentage of Australians on working age welfare in 25 years. You don't have to take the Treasurer's word for it that tax cuts work; you just have to look at the million more men and women who are going to work every single day.

But we must push through with the plan to its conclusion. It is critical to sustaining our future growth that Australia's corporate tax rate be competitive for all businesses. The United States is reducing their corporate tax to 21 per cent and France to 25 per cent, while the United Kingdom's rate was already 19 per cent. According to KPMG, the EU's average company tax rate is 21 per cent. In a 21st-century global economy, companies have a great deal of choice as to where they locate their workforce, and investors' money is extremely mobile. If we cannot attract and keep the high growth businesses of the future in Australia then we will not be able to grow the economy and provide the good jobs that Australians want.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 13:30