Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to talk about company tax cuts because I think it is important to also record that around 15 years ago we had a corporate tax rate which was the ninth lowest amongst advanced economies. Today it is the sixth highest out of 35 OECD countries. We know that in the global fight for capital and investment, we need to be globally competitive. That is why we have announced our Enterprise Tax Plan, which will put us on a globally competitive scale with all of the other advanced economies around the world and will allow us to continue to attract investment to this country.

The member for Rankin asks why we would be doing this? I can tell you why. We would be doing this because we have received modelling that tells us—as he would know, because he is not as ignorant as he seems—it will deliver an increase in our level of GDP on a sustained basis. He knows that corporate tax cuts are expected to return a business investment of around 2.6 per cent in the long term. He also knows that two-thirds of the benefits of a lower corporate tax rate in Australia accrue to Australian households through higher real wages. You do not need to take my word for it—Ken Henry himself did say that, if the company income tax were to be cut, the principal beneficiaries would be workers. They say they care for workers and they say they are going to stand up for workers, and I would ask them to support our company tax cuts, if they truly believe what they say.

The member opposite has also asked me about underemployment. I find it very curious that he neglected to mention the unemployment rate—the fact that the unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to be 5.6 per cent in August, which was better than the medium market expectation for the rate to remain steady at around 5.7 per cent. This is the lowest unemployment rate since September 2013, almost three years ago.

It is very, very important that, since the election of this government, almost half a million jobs—about 490,000 jobs—have been created. Around 180,000 of those jobs have been created in the last 12 months. This is a government that believes it is important to create jobs. We believe it is important to encourage investment and we believe it is important to do that through our tax plan. In particular, we are encouraging small businesses, through the way that our tax plan operates, to make increased investments in their businesses. Through the cut to the company tax rate and through the equivalent tax discount that will be provided to unincorporated entities, they will be able to invest more in their business, to grow their business and to create more jobs in this country. Because, at the end of the day, that is what it is all about.

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