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

Something that Senator Marshall clearly does not understand is that Australia is an open trading economy which competes for capital around the world. What we are doing by bringing down the business tax rate and making sure that it is more internationally competitive is to protect our economy and to protect jobs. We compete for capital internationally and we compete for investment internationally. If we want to strengthen our economy, if we want to create more jobs and if we want to better opportunities for people to get ahead then we need to ensure that the businesses across Australia who employ Australians have the best possible opportunity to be successful.

That is precisely what we are doing. The Australian business tax rate is high by international standards at 30 per cent. Other jurisdictions have already moved to bring it down—like the United Kingdom to 19 per cent. The US is looking at reducing it to 15 per cent. If we do not make our business tax rate more internationally competitive, we will lose investment and we will lose job growth opportunities. (Time expired)