Senate debates

Tuesday, 21 August 2018

Bills

Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan No. 2) Bill 2017; Second Reading

12:01 pm

Photo of Peter GeorgiouPeter Georgiou (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to set the record straight on behalf of One Nation. Let me be clear: we do not support the proposed company tax cuts nor any of the proposed amendments in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan No. 2) Bill 2017. One Nation has never received any draft legislation from government with any kind of detail where the big banks would be carved out from company tax cuts. In spite of all this, let me make some further points. The proposed company tax cuts are an indictment of where government values and morals lie, and that is in the deep pockets of big business. This government has not provided any policy or attempted to pay down the multibillion-dollar debt. In fact, this government, along with previous regimes, has left zero fat in the budget to pay down any debt.

Until multinational companies are pursued and forced to pay their fair share of taxes, we will stop allowing oil and gas companies to raid our natural resources without paying adequate royalties. One Nation cannot justify tax cuts beyond the $50 million threshold, which the party was instrumental in securing for small- to medium-sized businesses in this country. One Nation has taken a responsible approach for future generations in this country. If the government has billions of dollars to spend, then I look forward to working with the Treasurer and the finance minister on nation-building projects such as new roads, dams, bridges, railways and vital infrastructure that will benefit all Australians, not just the big end of town.

We've got farmers committing suicide. We've got Australians losing their jobs that are being overtaken by 457 visa holders. We've got industry scaling back so fast. Once this country was the lucky country. Now we're quickly becoming the sellout country. One Nation would like to see the Commonwealth work with state governments to look at ways of reducing payroll tax, which is a bigger impost on businesses across the nation. This will help stimulate jobs across Australia.

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