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

For the Australian economy to continue to grow, we need to continue to attract investment. While in the past our corporate tax rate has been internationally competitive, we are now towards the bottom of the pile. There are only five countries in the OECD out of 35 that have a higher corporate tax rate than Australia. One of them, the United States, has already flagged that it will reduce its corporate tax rate from 35 per cent down to 15 per cent. The average across the OECD is actually 25 per cent.

If the parliament were to support the 10-year Enterprise Tax Plan of the Turnbull government, it would take us 10 years to get to the average position of OECD countries. We would not be at the head of the queue. We would not be right up there in front of the queue leading the charge in lower corporate taxes. We would be middle of the road. Australia as an economy needs to continue to attract investment. We cannot afford to not be in a competitive position with other countries in the world when it comes to attracting capital investment. (Time expired)