Centre Alliance: Get One Nation, then we’ll talk on company tax cuts

Centre Alliance says it could get behind the remaining company tax cuts if Mathias Cormann can get One Nation’s support.

Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann. Picture: AAP

Centre Alliance says it could get behind the government’s remaining company tax cuts if Fin­ance Minister Mathias Cormann convinced One Nation to support the package.

Senator Cormann yesterday declared the Coalition was “absolutely committed to taking business tax cuts to the next election, hopefully having been legislated by the Senate” after repeated questioning from Labor. He did not clarify whether he was referring to legislated tax cuts for businesses with an annual turnover up to $50 million, the remaining tax cuts for all other companies or both.

Labor interpreted his comments as a pledge to take the full enterprise tax plan, which drops the tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent for all businesses, to the next election.

The government will need the support of eight of the 10 Senate crossbenchers to legislate the tax cuts for big business this sitting fortnight but has only four independents on side, making the two One Nation senators and two Centre Alliance senators critical.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has not met with Senator Cormann since she returned from leave but it is understood her opposition to the remaining company tax cuts for big businesses is unchanged.

Centre Alliance’s Stirling Griff, who met Senator Cormann yesterday, said the government had to convince his party there would be extra revenue and no cuts to community services if the economy went backwards and the entire package was legislated. The revenue could come from mining taxes or extra diligence within the Australian Taxation Office, he said.

“But they’ve got to get (Pauline) Hanson over the line,” Senator Griff said.

“If they (do), maybe … we could all come up with something that’s going to work. It does rest on them getting her two votes.”

“They’ve acknowledged those are the two key points for us,” Senator Griff told The Australian.

Queensland Nationals MPs Llew O’Brien and Michelle Landry said the government should give the remaining company tax cuts one last go in the Senate and then, if unsuccessful, “move on”.

“It’s looking more and more like tax cuts for big business are yesterday’s news,” Mr O’Brien said.

“If it doesn’t get through the Senate I think we need to focus on what’s important to Australian families and small and medium-sized businesses, that’s bringing the cost of living down and particularly electricity.”