Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to continue if you like. I am delighted. We know that an official from the Department of Industry's Innovation Policy Branch told the Senate committee that this was nothing more than a savings measure and, as such, was extremely short sighted. KPMG pointed out in their submission to the committee:

The estimated savings of $1.1 billion gained by the proposed changes are flawed and will provide the Government with at best a small increase in consolidated revenue now at the price of longer term growth in Australia in future.

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To the best of our knowledge, Australia will be the first country in the world to exclude such a specific and targeted subset of large companies from claiming an R&D tax incentive—

which is an entitlement that you find all over the world. So this proposal will set back Australian industry and will be the first in the world in terms—

Debate interrupted.