Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 4 May 2016, the Prime Minister said:

Ensuring that our company tax rate is competitive, ensuring that it is competitive with other economies, particularly those in our region, is absolutely critical to attract the investment into businesses in Australia.

Yet today, it seems that the government may be about to change its mind. On 9 September last year, when asked to name his greatest achievement since deposing former Prime Minister Tony Abbot, Prime Minister Turnbull said 'reforms to business tax', and yet here we are wondering in the Senate if it was all just another thought bubble. Labor has never supported the company tax cuts. We certainly made it clear last year after this was announced, throughout the election campaign and through to today that we do not support this $50 billion dollar ramraid to the budget to deliver tax cuts to big business. The government's plans for this have been a case study into its fiscal and economic mismanagement, clearly defining the lack of leadership displayed by the current Prime Minister and the current Treasurer of Australia. The 2016-17 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook released only a few days before the Christmas break showed this clearly. It showed deficits blowing out by another $10 billion over the forward estimates since the budget.

The deficit for this financial year, since the government's first budget, has more than tripled. The net debt for this financial year has blown out by $100 billion since this government took office. That is more than $4,000 for every Australian. The projected surplus for 2020-21 has shrunk to $1 billion, leaving us all in the danger zone when it comes to our much coveted AAA credit rating. I will add that this government has been a failure on the economy all over—a negative quarter of economic growth, just the fourth in more than 100 quarters, 34,000 full-time jobs lost last year, stagnating living standards and record low wages growth. This government totally walks away from everything. It is certainly walking away from what it took to the election and it is doing the same as always, even with 18C.