Andrew Leigh

CORMANN COMES CLEAN ON TAX COSTING

The Abbott Government has absolutely no idea what the fiscal impact of its main multinational tax measure will be because no costings were prepared ahead of its inclusion in the Budget.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann admitted in Senate Estimates that the Government could not give revenue estimates for the proposed Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law because this is completely uncosted: 

CORMANN: We don’t have a credible figure.

DASTYARI: You haven’t costed it?

CORMANN: Well, those are your words. What we’ve decided is –

DASTYARI: The question is: have you costed it?

CORMANN: Well, the answer is that we haven’t because we don’t have the necessary information to credibly do that.

- Senate Estimates, 2 June 2015

It is astonishing that the Government would propose a significant change to Australia’s tax laws without having any idea what the implications of this will be.

This may be the clearest example yet of Joe Hockey’s erratic and slapdash approach to managing Australia’s economy. 

The Abbott Government has had more than a year to come up with a sensible, costed plan to tackle multinational profit shifting.

Instead, Joe Hockey’s best effort features a proposal so flimsy that the country’s brightest economic minds in Treasury can’t even cost it.

Months before the Budget, Labor put forward a fully costed package of multinational tax measures that will protect $7.2 billion in revenue over the coming decade.

We put in the hard work of developing a rigorous, careful package because we are serious about ensuring big multinationals pay their fair share.

In contrast, the Abbott Government is offering nothing more than chaotic policymaking and uncosted, five-minutes-to-midnight ideas.

Australians deserve a government that is willing and able to do the hard work of developing sound economic policy. Today’s revelation shows they do not have one right now.

TUESDAY, 2 JUNE 2015

MEDIA CONTACT: JENNIFER RAYNER 0428 214 856