Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I also want to get on record a quick response to Senator Cormann's statement and Senator Hinch's statement that somehow the Greens and Labor had supported tax cuts to the banks. I think there are many of us in this chamber that lament the state of politics in this country and how everything's dumbed down, with the emphasis on the word 'dumb'. But, for those who are following this debate, I made it very clear in my last statement that we oppose both these amendments because these amendments are designed to help enable the passage of the entire package of the bill. They're designed to split off a couple of crossbenchers on some kind of deal that's been done and give the government the numbers to pass the entire package of tax cuts to big corporations in this country

The Greens have been very clear: we oppose tax cuts to big corporations, including big multinationals. We oppose tax cuts that will be used, as the evidence in the US shows us, to buy back shares. And what do share buybacks do? They push up the price of shares, which is great for CEOs, because that means they get bigger bonuses, and their options are often in the money, and that means big packages and happy days. It's not so good for the workers. There's very little evidence that that money has been passed on to workers or that it's been used to hire more workers, which is this government's proposition on what tax cuts will do.

We've been very clear: we don't want to give more money to electricity companies that have been gouging customers in this country, or the big oil and gas companies that we've talked about in this place in recent days that aren't even paying tax, the Chevrons and ExxonMobils of the world who have got hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits clocked up through the petroleum resource rent tax, which is a complete rort. We don't want to be giving any big business in this country a tax cut when we desperately need revenue to pay for our social security, to pay for our safety net and to invest in our communities and our country's future. We believe that money should be going to investing in infrastructure and other ways of building the industries of the future—a real plan for a sustainable jobs and growth. We don't believe in hundreds of billions of dollars being wasted on defence industry rorts, pork-barrelling in marginal electorates for this government for the next election. We don't believe in turning Australia into a top 10 global arms dealer as a way of generating money. We have been very clear about what our propositions are for the Australian people for a future for all of us—a future for the whole country that actually looks after the planet and looks after communities.

I wanted to make it very clear today that this amendment that Senator Hinch has now put up is another amendment that is designed to get the deal done, designed to give the government the numbers. Fine, if Senator Hinch is happy to be giving tax cuts at a $500 million threshold. The Greens have been very clear that we are happy to give tax cuts to small business. We've led on that issue. We've supported it. It has been passed. Small business are the ones in this country that desperately need a hand. We don't believe that giving handouts to big business is the right thing to be doing. I think the Australian people agree with us. That's been very clear. I think we absolutely should be holding the government to account in this place, this house of review, which is the Senate. I think we should be taking these propositions to the next election and that's the message from the Australian Greens.