Pauline Hanson reneges on Malcolm Turnbull’s company tax plan

PENNY Wong has spectacularly clashed with a government minister after being compared to Pauline Hanson, saying it was ‘offensive’.

PENNY Wong has unleashed an angry attack on a government minister today after he compared her to Pauline Hanson, saying it was “offensive” given the One Nation leader’s maiden speech about Asians “swamping Australia.”

Her extraordinary clash with Mathias Cormann came as she grilled the Finance Minister on any secret deals the government had made with One Nation, prompted by reports Senator Hanson had this morning withdrawn her support for the government’s corporate tax rate cuts.

“Don’t tell me I channel Pauline Hanson. I find that personally offensive,” Senator Wong shouted.

“I can tell you what happened to me and my family and people like us when she stood up in the Parliament, possibly before you were here, saying Australia was in danger of being swamped by asians. I will never do anything other than fight her.”

Senator Wong rejected the Minister’s response that her outrage was confected, demanding he withdraw the comment.

“She thinks people like me were swamping Australia,” Senator Wong said.

“We don’t channel Pauline Hanson. You’re the ones who cosy up to her and let her write tax policy, and government policy in order to get your vote over the line.”

Senator Cormann had made the claim she liked to “channel Senator Hanson” when Senator Wong asked about whether the government was considering some of the One Nation leader’s “additional” demands to secure her support for the business tax cuts.

She asked if the government was intending to consider any of Senator Hanson’s propositions, such as drastically cutting Australia’s immigration rate.

Labor Senator Penny Wong has unleashed an angry attack on Mathias Cormann after he compared her to Pauline Hanson. Picture: AAP

The minister had already faced about two hours of grilling in Senate estimates at Parliament House primarily focused on reports this morning that Senator Hanson had withdrawn her support for the company tax cuts.

The backflip — Senator Hanson’s second change of heart this year — will scuttle the Prime Minister’s signature economic plan entirely unless the government is able to win back her support.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten seized on the reports in Question Time, asking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull if he made a “secret deal” with Senator Hanson to pass his “big business tax cuts”.

Mr Turnbull said Labor’s opposition to the tax cuts meant the Coalition had to seek support from the crossbench, which it did so “constructively” and “with respect”.

The Prime Minister also confirmed the government would take the tax cuts to the next election if it was unable to secure enough support to pass them now.

Senator Cormann stopped short of criticising One Nation for reneging on the deal this morning but said the government had negotiated with the party “in good faith” and had received private and public commitments that they would support the legislation in full.

“I hope that this is not the last word spoken on this and that we will be able to persuade Pauline Hanson and her team to go back to the position that they adopted earlier this year,” he told reporters in Canberra.

The government argues cutting the company tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent by 2026-27 will drive business investment and secure jobs but it has not been able to secure enough crossbench support to pass the bill through the Senate.

Mathias Cormann claimed Senator Wong’s outrage was confected. Picture Gary Ramage

Without One Nation, the government is five votes short of being able to pass the bill.

Senator Hanson has told The Australian she is disappointed with the government’s efforts to sell the business tax cuts to the public, saying most people don’t back the plan.

Senator Hanson also said she was disappointed the $60 million pilot ­apprenticeship scheme she negotiated with the government in ­return for supporting the corporate tax cuts did not appear in the budget papers.

“My main concern is that we wanted to create jobs, which we did with the apprentice scheme and also to get revenue into the country to pay down debt,” she said.

“Upon reflection, in the budget, the government has done absolutely nothing. I couldn’t see anything there about the thousand-place apprenticeship scheme.”

The Senator outlined a new set of near-impossible demands for the government to win back her support, including greater assistance for pensioners, lower power prices for consumers and greater efforts to stop multinational tax avoidance.

She also called for a dramatic overhaul of the Petroleum ­Resource Rent Tax and for the government to commit to a new gas pipeline connecting the west and east coasts.

Senator Pauline Hanson talking to the PM Malcolm Turnbull in the Senate. Picture: Supplied

The Senator voiced her disappointment with the government’s blueprint for debt ­reduction, saying the budget was built on “eggshells” and could “crash at any time” while pointing out the Coalition had failed to support coal-fired power to curtail increasing power bills.

Senator Hanson rejected suggestions today she had broken her promise to support the tax cuts and was holding the government to ransom with new demands.

“Have I broken my word? No, I haven’t broken my word,” she said.

“Since that agreement with the government, they have brought out the budget papers. And they have not addressed paying down debt, there was nothing in it about the 1000 apprenticeship places ... in a pilot scheme, there is nothing about the PRRT.”

Senator Hanson said she had the “utmost respect” for Senator Cormann and knew he was “devastated” by her decision.

She said she could not, in good conscience, do nothing when there were issues that needed to be addressed in Australia.

“As I have stated, they have got to address the higher immigration numbers coming to this country, they have to address and put a coal-fired power station in North Queensland, they have got to address their budget spending,” she said.

“We cannot keep giving away borrowed money to other countries when we cannot look after our own in this country. High immigration numbers is what is destroying the standard of living in Australia. The cities cannot cope any more.

“That has to be addressed. ... The people of this country wants leadership. They want honesty and they want trust. And I had to do that job. I regret pulling out of this, [but] considering the budget papers that were handed down, I cannot continue to pass these corporate tax cuts.”

Prime Minister Turnbull will be unable to pass the bill without the One Nation leader’s support, given she controls three crucial seats in the Senate.

Senator Hanson initially opposed the government’s corporate tax cuts, then changed her mind in March in exchange for the apprenticeship program.

Minister Cormann rejected Senator Hanson’s suggestion the apprenticeship program should have been in the budget.

Matthew Stephen (far left), with Pauline Hanson, will contest the Queensland seat of Longman this weekend. Picture: AAP/Glenn Hun

“It was always understood and accepted by Pauline Hanson and One Nation that the things we agreed were conditional on the successful passage of the legislation, in full, to reduce the business tax rate over time for all businesses down to 25 per cent, and that remains the Government’s position,” he said.

“The Government remains 100 per cent committed to all of the things that we reached agreement on with One Nation earlier this year.”

Senator Hanson’s about face comes ahead of the “Super Saturday” by-elections in Queensland.

One Nation candidate Matthew Stephen will contest the Queensland seat of Longman, which is held by Labor on a slim margin of 0.8 per cent.

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen this morning called on the government to publicly reveal its secret deal with Senator Hanson.

“Scott Morrison should come clean today; what deals were done, what arrangements have been entered into, what horse trading has occurred,” he said.

“We all know his company tax cuts are a dud product but we also need to know what has he sold out on, what dirty deals has he done in order to get them through with the support of One Nation.”

The row on corporate tax cuts and Hanson comes after The Daily Telegraph reported that Senator Wong took confidential Budget papers from the official lockup in a major security breach — then refused to come out of her office when the head of Treasury Security arrived to retrieve the documents.

Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen claimed the allegation was “a desperate attempt” by the Government’s “spin unit” to distract from comparisons between Labor’s tax cuts and the Coalition’s.

“She carried them out under her arm as she was entitled to do, as every Member of the Opposition has done for as long as anybody can remember,” he said.

Mr Bowen said admitted Treasury officials stopped he and Jenny Macklin and asked them to leave the Budget papers behind, but he denied any aggressive conduct.

“This was the first time this has ever happened and we did question that decision but the conversation was respectful,” he said.

“The Treasury officials were doing their job. They were following their instructions and they respected us at all times and they were respected at all times.”

He said the Opposition had “for as long as anybody can remember” been given access to the Budget lock up and MP’s had left at 7pm with the Budget papers.