Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Carr, the company tax rate in Australia is 30 per cent, which means that any legitimate business expense can effectively be deducted from your tax liability, out of your profits, at a rate of 30 per cent. What you are saying is that businesses generating more than $20 billion in profits a year should be able to claim 40 to 45 per cent in tax deductions when they only pay 30 per cent in tax. How is that consistent with the argument that you are otherwise prosecuting? It is inconsistent. You are saying that we ought to ensure that we protect the revenue base of the Commonwealth. Well, here we are seeking to protect the revenue base of the Commonwealth through a measure that you and the Labor Party, not us, initiated and banked in your last budget in May 2013. Here we are dealing with a budget measure out of your last budget still hanging around the country's neck. You are playing politics. I know that you rolled your leader in relation to this. I know that Mr Shorten was not strong enough to stand up to you because you have got a particular personal interest in relation to these matters. But the truth is that it was the former Labor government that initiated this particular saving. It is the coalition that is doing your work because you never legislated something that you banked in your last budget.