Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

to double it from 7½ to 15 per cent, that would have a chilling effect on investment, particularly in areas—they were concerned—around renewable energy but more broadly around investment in critical infrastructure in Australia. This is after only a couple of years. The late lamented Kevin Rudd and the talented Chris Bowen reduced this tax to 7½ per cent as of 2010-11, only for Julia Gillard, Bill Shorten and David Bradbury to try and double it two years later.

One of the important things as a principle in tax policy and economic policy generally is certainty and stability. Continuity, consistency and credibility are what the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development used to talk about, and that is important in policy settings. If you are sending a message, as my colleague Senator Edwards said, that you want Australia to be a financial centre, you cannot chop and change on these measures. The government has chopped and changed on these measures in this budget because it needed revenue for other things, just as it transmogrified a company tax cut—