Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thought I had answered this question previously, but that may not be the case. This was a budget decision. I have made clear that obviously, as a budget decision, it was not the subject of consultation prior to its announcement. What we have done is ensure that the implementation is staged. My recollection—I do not have the MYEFO document here—is that we will stage it in tranches depending on the turnover, for large businesses from memory from January 2014, as there is an annual staging of entry into the new system depending on company turnover. So I make two points to the senator: no additional tax is being levied. And, if I may make a political point, the only people who are advocating a company tax increase are those opposite with the levy that is proposed by Mr Abbott to be imposed on companies. The point is that there is no additional taxation levied; it is simply a change in the timing of remittance of that taxation. There are obviously implementation issues which will need to be resolved and worked through with the business community, which is why the government has put in place a lengthy lead time for the consultation process.