Company tax cuts for small and medium-sized businesses

CHRIS GAMBIAN, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BANKS: Well g’day everybody. Welcome to Hurstville and welcome to the St. George area. My name is Chris Gambian, I’m the Labor candidate for the seat of Banks. We are absolutely delighted to have the two senior most economic Shadow Ministers here today, Chris Bowen and Jim Chalmers. In the seat of Banks we’ve got a lot of very hard working workers and a lot of very hard working small business people, and both of those groups are utterly dismayed at the track record of the Liberal Party when it comes to looking after their interests. So we’re very pleased to have Chris and Jim here to talk to us today about the Labor program that’s going to help workers, that’s going help small business people. Over to you.

 

CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks very much Chris it’s great to be here in Banks with Chris Gambian our hard working candidate and of course my friend and colleague Jim Chalmers.

 

Well right across the country, as Jim and I have been pointed out this week, people are better off under Labor’s better, fairer tax plans. Whether it’s Queensland, Western Australia or here in the St. George district, working people are better off under Labor’s better designed, more responsible, bigger, better, fairer tax cuts. Here in the electorate of Banks 67 000 people better off under Labor’s plans, that’s 74per cent of the tax payers in the electorate of Banks.

 

Labor’s plans are more affordable, better targeted, more responsible, because they’re targeted at working Australians earning less than $125,000 a year. Many Australians getting tax cuts almost double what they would get under the Turnbull Government, under Labor’s better plans, but also more responsible plans because they’re focused on the years in which we know that this tax relief is more affordable. Likewise, our corporate tax plans are better designed, and also better for businesses right across the country, 99 per cent of businesses better off under Labor’s plans, and I’ll ask Jim to add to those remarks in relation to our corporate tax plans, in relation to the electorate of Banks. It’s always a delight to be with Chris Gambian, and after Jim’s remarks we’ll take your questions.

 

JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW FINANCE MINISTER: Thanks very much Chris. It’s good to be here at Hurstville station with Chris Gambian, our candidate for Banks, and of course with Chris Bowen as well talking about Labor’s alternative plans for tax. Under Malcolm Turnbull we’ve got record debt in this country, we’ve got net debt which is double what the Liberal’s inherited from Labor, and we’ve got gross debt at more than half-a-trillion dollars for the first time in Australian history, and projected to be more than half-a-trillion dollars every year, for the next 10 years.

 

So when the Budget’s in a mess like that, you really need to prioritise where you can give tax relief; where it’s responsible and affordable, and where it can do the most good for local workers, local businesses and the broader local and national economy as well. Bill Shorten and Labor have said all along that our priority is middle Australia; small and medium sized businesses and businesses which will actually invest onshore in Australian jobs in communities like this one in the St George area in Sydney.

 

And so what that means for Banks, the seat that Chris Gambian is running for, is that 12,647 businesses, and many of them up and down this main drag here in Hurstville in Barton as well, are eligible to be the beneficiaries of Labor’s Australian Investment Guarantee, which says to businesses, if you invest in the local community and if you invest in capital and you help to create jobs here in Australia, Labor will support you every single step of the way. We will support 99.8per cent of Australian businesses who will pay the same amount or less tax under an Australian Labor Government led by Bill Shorten than they will under a Liberal Government led by Malcolm Turnbull.

 

And the contrast is really clear. The differences are really stark between our approach to tax and Malcolm Turnbull’s approach to tax. What Malcolm Turnbull wants to do is to give 60per cent of his personal income tax cuts to the wealthiest 20 per cent of Australians. He wants to see the vast bulk of his company tax cuts go overseas to foreign multinationals. And he wants to hand a $17 billion tax cut to the big four banks alone.

 

Every dollar that Malcolm Turnbull wants to give to the big banks, or to foreign shareholders and foreign multinationals, is a dollar which cannot be invested in local services here in the St George area; which can’t be invested in hospitals and schools; which can’t be used to pay down that record debt; and which can’t be used to genuinely support small and medium sized enterprises which are such a big part of the local and national economy. Over to you.

 

BOWEN: Okay folks.

 

REPORTER: What’s your response to Mark Latham’s urging people in Longman to not to vote for Labor and accusing Bill Shorten [inaudible]?

 

BOWEN: Well, where to start in relation to Mark Latham? There’s a number of points I’ll make. Firstly, I don’t always agree with Graham Richardson these days but I saw that exchange last night and Graham Richardson is 100 per cent right about Mark Latham. I come from South Western Sydney, the same are that Mark Latham once represented: Fairfield – Liverpool. And the hard working Labor Party branch members of that area used to put the hat around to find the funds to help Mark Latham through university. And for him to behave in this fashion towards the Labor Party which gave him everything says more about Mark Latham than it does about the Labor Party. That’s point one. Point two, Mark Latham is playing footsie with Pauline Hanson. Well we know how this story ends. Mark Latham has fallen out with everybody he has ever worked with and Pauline Hanson has fallen out with everybody she has ever worked with, so those two charlatans deserve each other. So they can go off and do whatever they want to do together, they deserve each other. And the final point I would make is this, Mark Latham lead the Labor Party to one election, it was a disaster. Bill Shorten has led the Labor Party so far to one election in which he campaigned against the odds, defied the pundits and won a whole lot of seats whereas Mark Latham lost seats. So if Mark Latham wants to have a battle with Bill Shorten I know where my money is.

 

JOURNALIST: How do you think he would go if he contested the next Senate election for One Nation?

 

BOWEN: Well I think the Australian people would see through the charlatan that he is, that he has become. You know I see that with no relish, it is sad to see a former leader of the Labor Party sink to such depth. But he will go down as one of the great Labor rats of history and playing with a Party as destructive as Pauline Hanson’s says more about him than it says about anybody else.

 

JOURNALIST: Do you think this could be damaging though to your chances?

 

BOWEN: Not at all. I think the Australian people worked Mark Latham out along time ago. I mean it was the 2010 election that he was following Julia Gillard around who he wants to praised as the best person in Australian politics. He has given up all credibility he ever had and he did that years ago. He has fallen out, whether it be the Financial Review, The Spectator, apparently the Liberal Democrats now, he falls out with everybody he has ever worked with because he simply doesn’t have what it takes to be a serious contributor to Australian politics. As I said, I see that with no relish, I say that more in sadness then in anger as somebody who represented our great party in the Fedral Parliament and indeed led it but he has nobody but himself to blame. If he wants to be one of the greatest rats in Labor history, that’s a matter for him. But the Labor Party knows better than that and the Australian people worked him out along time ago.

 

JOURNALIST: Should the ALP’s National Executive take control of any preselections ahead of the next Federal Election?

 

BOWEN: Well I presume you are referring there mainly to Victoria. That’s a matter for the Victorian Labor Party. Preselection period is always a robust period, people putting their cases forward quite appropriately. It’s something that all of us have been through, all three of us have been through running for preselection for the Labor Party. The Victorian Labor Party will sort it out and I’m sure that we will get a good range of excellent candidates.

 

JOURNALIST: Why would such a move undermine the party democratically?

 

BOWEN: Well from time to time different arrangements are put in place based on the circumstances in any particular seat at any particular time. It’s really a matter for the State branch and the National Executive to consult on, the Leader’s views be taken and the right balance be reached. I really have nothing further to add.

 

ENDS