Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The G20 Leaders' Summit will convene in my home town of Brisbane in fewer than four weeks. One of the critical issues on the agenda will be tackling tax base erosion and profit shifting. In our host year, it is incumbent upon Australia to lead the pack on this very important issue.

But nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that the Abbott government is one of the best supporters multinational tax evaders could ever have. This can be seen in their decision to ditch Labor measures tackling transfer pricing and improving transparency, effectively handing $1.1 billion back to big global firms.

Joe Hockey has also made Australia a laggard on implementing the common reporting standard for financial accounting information by pushing back the start date to 2018. In contrast, other countries around the world are taking action. Just last week, as the member for Canberra said—

Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fraser!

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry, Fraser! Just last week, Ireland phased out that country's most notorious tax loophole—the notorious 'Double Irish Dutch Sandwich' tax arrangements. The fact is that other nations are forging ahead to tighten their tax systems and it is time that Australia retreated from its approach of putting its head in the sand and made these companies pay their fair share.

Every dollar that a multinational tax cheat takes is paid for by Australians, who lose it out of their pay packets. Pensioners, families, students and those on low and modest incomes are all losing through multinational tax evasion. (Time expired)