Bowen’s budget reply to hold out on company tax

Labor will strengthen its claim it had fully funded the NDIS as it buys time to recalibrate its company tax policy.

Labor will strengthen its claim today that it had fully funded the National Disability Insurance Scheme as it buys time to recalibrate its company tax policy.

In his post-budget address to the National Press Club today, Labor Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen will withhold Labor ­support for tax cuts for companies with an annual turnover of up to $50 million.

Small businesses are asking the opposition to clarify whether it will support the cuts or reimpose taxes if it wins government, saying the uncertainty is increasing pressure on them to move offshore.

Bill Shorten has campaigned against the government’s plan to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 per cent for all companies over the decade — a measure estimated to cost $65.4 billion by 2027-28.

In his speech, Mr Bowen will argue that the forgone $65bn is a “long-term structural drag on the budget” and an exercise in fiscal recklessness.

However, tax cuts ­already legislated cost $29.8bn.

He will also reject claims Labor did not fully fund the NDIS, one of the key political battles to emerge from the budget after the government lifted the Medicare levy 0.5 per cent to boost funding.

“It’s as if Labor did not make changes to the private-health insurance rebate, change the indexation of tobacco excise, change import duties and fringe-benefit concessions,” Mr Bowen will say.

“These things did happen. They were decided, they were implemented.

“Combined, these savings are enough to pay for the NDIS.”

Mr Bowen will continue to target housing affordability, saying any package that fails to change negative gearing and capital gains tax is a “sham”.

Taking aim at the plan to allow first-home buyers to draw up to $30,000 of voluntary super­annuation contributions for a deposit, Mr Bowen says it will “not make a jot of difference.”

In a speech that attempts to ­portray the Opposition Leader as framing the terms of the national debate, Mr Bowen dismisses the budget as the government’s ­attempt to play catch-up to Labor.

He describes it as a “Labor-lite” budget of a government abandoning its values and intent on “getting the Prime Minister through the next four sitting weeks”.

Labelling the budget as a ­belated admission that Australia faces a revenue problem, Mr Bowen attacks the rise in net debt and notes the lift in the debt ceiling to $600bn “buried deep in the budget papers”.