Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 2016, the Turnbull government went to the federal election promising tax cuts to Australia—personal tax cuts, which they've got, and company tax cuts. They narrowly won government and last year tried to make good on the company tax cuts, even though the Labor opposition, the so-called friend of workers and small business, wanted to block any cuts to any business with a turnover of more than $2 million. The then senator Jacqui Lambie and I got that threshold up to $10 million. Senator Hanson, from One Nation, and I improved the figure to $50 million. That is the figure the government voted for as, I'll admit, an interim measure, and they promised, through Senator Cormann, to bring on a big tax cut for bigger businesses this year.

I made it quite clear that I would not, that I could not, vote for a company tax cut for the big four robber banks when they were facing a royal commission into their rapacious, nefarious behaviour. In March I went on Sky News and offered a compromise. I told Samantha Maiden that I would vote for company tax cuts, to 27½ per cent and eventually to 25 per cent, for all Australian companies with a turnover up to $500 million.