Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Milne for her supplementary question. Firstly, I would say that our Treasurer, the Hon. Joe Hockey, is providing great global leadership in resolving this issue. The second point I would make is that Australia right now is already sharing information with about 40 countries around the world. We do think we need to take this further through a common reporting standard, but we are very mindful that, as we implement this, we implement it in a way that is the least distorting of our capacity to continue to grow the economy as strongly as possible here in Australia. By deferring this part of the strategy by one year, we are able to let businesses implement those changes in a more sensible way, minimising the costs they will incur as they make those necessary changes. Let me be very clear: we are totally focused on doing everything we can to ensure that every business, including multinational businesses, making profits here in Australia pay their fair share of tax.