Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to this motion today. While I agree with the sentiment that we do need tax reform in this country, I think the idea of taxing billionaires is overly simplistic. But we do need tax reform. I disagree with the former speaker that the Labor government has done enough about taxing foreign multinationals. You're not serious about taxing foreign multinationals until you lift the rate of withholding tax on profits sent offshore. I've spoken many times recently about the fact that the tax treaty with Ireland hasn't been updated since 1983. Given that Ireland's company tax rate dropped down to 12½ cents when they entered the EU 20 years ago, there really is no excuse as to why successive Australian governments haven't dealt with the rort that is shifting profits to Ireland. So, rather than taxing billionaires that live here in Australia, what we really need to do start doing is taxing profits that gets sent offshore. We need to lift the withholding tax rate to a rate that's higher than the onshore tax rate.

The other thing we need to do, of course, is one of the policies of People First—as a matter of fact, it's our first policy—is to lift the tax-free threshold to $40,000, because we believe that people shouldn't be taxed below the cost of living. It's an absolute outrage that we have people on low incomes paying 16c on the dollar plus 12 per cent superannuation plus 2c Medicare when it is 30c on the dollar up to $45,000 and over $45,000 they pay 30c on the dollar, 12c superannuation and 2c Medicare. Once you start earning more than $45,000, you're losing 44c on the dollar. That is an absolute outrage. Income tax is way too high in this country.

But it's not just tax reform we need in this country. We need to reform our entire monetary policy. Yet again, People First is the only party that actually understands global capital markets. We're the only ones that understand the way Australia's balance sheet works. For too many years, thanks to Paul Keating lifting capital controls in 1985, we have been too dependent on foreign debt, and we need to start relying on equity. Just like companies issue new shares on the stock exchange, Australian governments can issue new shares to build vital infrastructure that will generate recurring revenue to help pay for things like dental services, GP services, schools and hospitals, because we shouldn't just be taxing people. We can generate profits from the untapped wealth in this country in a way that not only delivers essential services but gives state governments another way of generating income that they have lost since they privatised way too many assets throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.