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

I'd like to thank the member for Dunkley for his question. As a former small business owner, he knows that the best generator of jobs is businesses. The best generators of incomes are businesses. When we see businesses thrive, we see them invest more and create more jobs for Australians to be employed. This is precisely why the government has legislated tax cuts for small- and medium-sized enterprises, and the results of this are very compelling: more than 400,000 jobs created in 2017—that's over 1,000 jobs created every single day. We have seen the results this morning for Australian business confidence, and we see that this is at its highest point since December 2010.

But not only do Labor want to keep business taxes high; they will actually increase business taxes on small- and medium-sized enterprises with a turnover of between $2 million and $50 million. These are businesses that are employing millions and millions of Australians and that either have already received a tax cut or will be receiving a tax cut on 1 July this year under the coalition.

The Leader of the Opposition was on the record recently at the National Press Club proclaiming, in his usual self-righteous fashion, 'We are in danger of creating a left-behind society.' What a very interesting choice of words given the reckless stance that he has taken on tax and the direct threat that this poses to businesses and workers across our great nation. Thanks to the Leader of the Opposition, we are in danger of being left behind by the United Kingdom, which has reduced its company tax rate to 19 per cent, soon to fall to 17 per cent. We are in danger of being left behind by the United States, which has reduced its rate to 21 per cent. We are in danger of being left behind by France, Italy and Belgium, which have either reduced their rates or announced an intention to do so in the future.

The importance of ensuring that our tax settings remain competitive should not come as news to the Leader of the Opposition, because, as the Prime Minister has quoted him, he has said that it leads to more jobs and higher wages. The Turnbull government, the OECD, the IMF and governments of various political persuasions from all around the world all recognise the economic benefits of reducing company tax rates. It's Labor opposition to the government's enterprise tax package that would see Australia left behind on business investment, on jobs, on growth, damaging our economy and harming the prosperity of millions of Australians.

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