Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are a government that takes multinational tax reform seriously, and we are getting on with practical reforms and practical progress. Indeed, it would be fair to say that there hasn't been a government in Australia that has done more to reform multinational tax than this one—reform led by the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh. Our reforms are about making sure that multinationals pay their fair share of tax in Australia and around the world. Our reforms are about shining a light on the tax affairs of some of our largest multinational companies, because we know that greater transparency brings greater corporate responsibility and greater compliance too.

These are sensible reforms. They are about lifting standards to meet community expectations, and they do just that. Importantly, they are not being done in isolation. The rest of the world, off the back of the OECD's work, is getting on with the job of implementing the very same reforms, making sure that in Australia, in developing nations and right across the world companies benefiting from the economies that they are operating in are giving back to those economies and those societies too.

These bills, the Taxation (Multinational—Global and Domestic Minimum Tax) Bill 2024 and related bills, are just the next step in our government's agenda to deliver on our commitments. They legislate the powers necessary to allocate top-up taxes where companies have not paid at least a 15 per cent rate of corporate tax. That can be in Australia or in another jurisdiction. In effect, this sets a global floor on corporate taxes, directly addressing the race to the bottom of corporate tax, ensuring that when companies may be doing the wrong thing, when they may be shifting profits to avoid paying their fair share of tax, there is a multilateral approach to correcting that.

The Senate Economics Legislation Committee held an inquiry into these bills. The committee heard just how important it is for Australia to be one of the leading jurisdictions on these global reforms and what it will mean for lifting the standards of corporate taxes and reporting right across the world. The Tax Justice Network Australia urged the committee to support the passage of the bills through parliament, and the Corporate Tax Association noted the significant milestone these bills represent in delivering the OECD's multilateral changes to global tax laws. The economics committee agreed to recommend that these bills pass.

These bills complement a series of reforms that this place has already passed, delivering on the government's election commitments to reform multinational taxes and to ensure multinationals are paying their fair share of tax. These reforms include important changes to how thin capitalisation rules factor in debt. They include new anti-avoidance rules to ensure artificial debt isn't being created for the purposes of writing down tax liabilities. They include a requirement for publicly listed companies to include detail on their subsidiaries, including where in the world they are and how they operate. Also before the parliament is country-by-country reporting—a really important tool to lift the transparency and reporting standards of these large companies. This will require large companies to report publicly where they are doing business, where they are making their money and where they are paying or, indeed, not paying their share of taxes.

In conclusion, taking this suite of bills together, these reforms are making really important changes to the amount of tax that multinational corporations are paying in Australia and right across the world. They are part of global reforms to boost the transparency and accountability of multinational tax affairs. In Australia, our package of reforms will boost revenue by around $1 billion over the forward estimates. These bills should be commended, and I welcome the parliament's support for them. I welcome the support of the Greens and the coalition, as we've heard this evening, and I thank everyone for the work they have done in championing these reforms and helping to usher them through the parliament.