Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. As the Treasurer aware that just a few hours ago the member for Dunkley said that the $50 billion handout to big business has 'his full support'. Why is the Treasurer hanging his back bench out to dry expecting them to support a $50 billion handout to big business that he will not fully commits to being in his budget?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. The tax cut for businesses, from small to large, was in the budget delivered in May. It was taken to the election in July. It was introduced to this parliament. It is about to be voted on. I am going to be voting for it. I support this heart and soul. I took it to an election with the Prime Minister. We won the election. We put it in the budget. We put it in the legislation, it is coming into the parliament and we are going to be voting for it. We are going to be voting for it in this chamber and we are going to be voting for it in that chamber.

The shadow Treasurer, having written extensively, is going to come into this chamber and vote against it. This is the man who said that we should be aiming for a 25 per cent corporate tax cut. He could not hit anything; he is certainly not going to hit 25, because he will not vote for what he says he believes in. This is the problem for the shadow Treasurer—he has become a shadow of his former self. He is being cowed into a position of policy cravenness by the Leader of the Opposition. He has been cowed into that position because he no longer believes or cannot stand up for what he said he once believed in, and that is a great tragedy. This is a man who pretends to wish to be the Treasurer of this country, and he is failing that test. We support company tax cuts; those opposite will vote against those company tax cuts. Our record on this issue will be recorded in this chamber and so will that of those opposite.