Rex Patrick (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance and concerns government procurement and expenditure. AusTender shows that, since 2016, the construction giant Lendlease has won federal contracts worth more than $661 million, overwhelmingly for Defence department construction. In addition, the defence minister announced in April this year the award of further contracts valued at $365 million, bringing Lendlease's total haul to over $1 billion. Is it not the case that the tax office's tax transparency reports show that, in the five years from 2013-14 to 2017-18, Lendlease generated $43 billion in revenue and generated a profit before tax of more than $5 billion but didn't pay a cent in corporate income tax? Are you aware that the company's own reports further show that they paid no income tax in 2018-19 and don't expect to pay any for some time yet? How do you reconcile awarding billions of dollars of contracts to corporate giants that pay no corporate tax?