Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the same way as Little Red Riding Hood failed to recognise the big, bad wolf, the coalition and Labor have failed to recognise foreign-owned multinationals for the danger they represent to the economy and to Australian workers. Too many multinational companies and their subsidiaries pay little or no tax in Australia. To put that in perspective, taxpayers in the working-class electorate of Longman in Queensland paid more in personal income tax in 2015-16 than all the foreign-owned multinational subsidiaries operating in Australia paid in company income tax.

The pitiful collection of company income tax from multinationals and their subsidiaries represents the strongest argument for reform of the tax system for multinationals. The same pitiful collection of company income tax from multinationals and their subsidiaries removes any economic argument that free trade agreements are good for Australians or the national economy. Additionally, free trade agreements often put Australian workers in direct competition with low-wage workers in countries where child workers are tolerated and where there are few protections for workers or the environment. We are told free trade agreements open up new markets, but the next thing we know jobs have moved abroad to low-wage nations, and that is one of the reasons Trump pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, like every other free trade agreement, was entered into by the government of the day without ever coming before the parliament. It is only later that the government of the day comes to the parliament to seek the passage of enabling legislation like customs tariff schedules. These agreements are about more than trade, because they include the movement of people from other countries to take jobs and they give multinationals the right to sue our government and get the matter arbitrated outside the Australian court system. Who would have imagined that Philip Morris, the cigarette company, would sue the Australian government for losses associated with the plain packaging of cigarettes? It is ridiculous that we are expected to pay multinationals for changes in government policy, but our government keeps agreeing to these investor-state dispute settlement provisions, known as ISDS. New Zealand has managed to void these ISDS provisions with side letters, and I wonder what has stopped Australia from doing the same.

One Nation cannot support trade agreements which put the interests of foreigners and foreign corporations ahead of the interests of Australian workers and the national economy. The government must reform the tax system which applies to foreign-owned multinationals and their subsidiaries in Australia and fill the revenue black hole left by them. The government must have noticed that the interest rate on 10-year US Treasury notes has risen sharply in the past few months. It is over three per cent and expected to rise again. This means the cost of servicing our external debt of $600 billion will rise and make more urgent the need to fill the multinational black hole caused by these companies not paying tax.

One Nation will always put the interests of citizens first, which is why we support tax cuts for businesses with a turnover under $50 million. We do so because we want to see small and medium Australian businesses thrive in Australia and employ Australians in Australia. One Nation supported the corporate tax cuts for turnover of up to $50 million, but the only way to move forward with this and create employment in Australia is to work with the states to reduce payroll tax. That will create employment in the states.

Why are companies and businesses paying payroll tax when the average median price in Western Australia or anywhere in Australia can be up to $80,000 a year? A lot of Australians don't get that amount of money, but it only takes 11 people to put them above the threshold. Then you've got businesses who are not putting on more employment, and, with wage increases and superannuation, they are over the threshold and they are not employing more people. In terms of the Greens' policies, their idea of saving this country is to: stop mining resources—billions of dollars gone; shut down farming more—billions of dollars gone; pay all Australians $30,000 each—as if we can afford this; and open the floodgates to immigration and refugees. That is what the Greens' policies are, and Australia would soon become a Third World country.