The first day of the G20 finance ministers' meeting saw Joe Hockey engage in a pretty obvious attempt to pull the wool over our eyes about his (lack of) actions tackling multinational tax avoidance. Here's hoping the second day of negotiations today results in some real outcomes, not more bluster from the Treasurer.
MEDIA RELEASE
HOCKEY MISLEADING ON MULTINATIONAL TAX
Joe Hockey's G20 weekend is not off to a good start, with the Treasurer blatantly misrepresenting where Australia stands in the battle against multinational tax avoidance.
In a statement issued earlier today, Mr Hockey claimed that Australia has kicked off moves towards better financial transparency by committing to a 2017 start date for the Common Reporting Standard on banking information.
But despite the Treasurer's triumphal rhetoric, the timetable he has named actually puts Australia behind over 40 countries, including major G20 powers like the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. The Early Adopter Group of nations will start the process for automatic exchange of financial information a full year earlier in 2016, leaving Australia lagging behind.
The Treasurer also neglected to mention that he has chosen to leave open tax loopholes worth $1.1 billion which would have been closed under Labor's tax plan.
These are simply not the actions of a Treasurer who is serious about making major global companies pay their fair share of tax.
Joe Hockey should be judged by the additional revenue his announcements deliver. Zero new revenue means zero new action.
Instead of trying to spin his inaction as achievement, Joe Hockey needs to knuckle down and get some real results out of this weekend's G20 meetings.
SUNDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2014
MEDIA CONTACT: JENNIFER RAYNER 0428 214 856
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