We’ll make company tax a vote winner, says Labor

Labor has vowed to transform any success Malcolm Turnbull has on company tax reform into a poisoned chalice.

Electrician Dominique Denais, in Morayfield, Brisbane yesterday, says he can see the logic of business tax cuts. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Labor has vowed to transform any success Malcolm Turnbull has on company tax reform into a poisoned chalice at the Longman by-election, positioning itself as the only force opposing the Prime Minister’s signature election ­policy.

Mr Turnbull, having won parliamentary support for income tax cuts, is pushing the Senate to this week reduce the company tax rate from 30 to 25 per cent for Australia’s largest companies to spur foreign investment and ultimately lift wages.

Opposition finance spokesman Jim Chalmers last night said the bill’s passage would fuel Labor’s campaign in the working-class electorate north of Brisbane.

“If Malcolm Turnbull rams his big business tax cuts through the parliament this week it will reinforce what the people of Longman like least about him, that he always prioritises the top end of town over workers and battlers,” Dr Chalmers told The Australian.

“We will be reminding everyone in that electorate that this Prime Minister reckons he can’t find money for local hospitals and schools but he can find $17 billion-plus for a handout for the four big banks. This is one of the defining issues of the by-election.”

Dr Chalmers also took aim at Pauline Hanson, saying the One Nation leader could not pretend to be “a friend of the battler” while refusing to vote down tax cuts. Senator Hanson, who is undecided how she will vote, has denied that voting for company tax cuts would be betrayal of voters in Longman.

“Whether I support the corporate tax cuts or not has nothing to do with the seat of Longman. That’s only one part of Australia. We’re talking about the whole benefit to all Australians,” she said.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said all Longman businesses — big and small — would benefit from extending tax relief to companies with annual revenue above $50 million.

“Businesses in Australia don’t operate in isolation. Every single business in Australia does business with other businesses,” Senator Cormann said.

Dominique Denais, 54, a swinging voter in Longman, said he understood the logic of company tax cuts but questioned whether they were affordable. “The idea is good … because it ­encourages them to invest and ­expand their businesses, and that has a flow-on effect for everyone including contractors like me,” the Morayfield electrician said. “If big business gets tax cuts, you have to ask where the government is getting the money for existing expenditure.”

Voters like Mr Denais will be the key to deciding the by-election on July 28, which opinion polls suggest will be a knife-edge contest between Labor’s Susan Lamb and former state MP Trevor ­Ruthenberg for the Liberals.

The Moreton Bay region, which encompasses Longman, last year recorded 27,211 businesses — including 239 with turnover above $10m — although it was unknown how many had a turnover above $50m. If Mr Ruthenberg can win Longman, it would damage Bill Shorten’s authority and make him the first opposition leader to concede a seat to the government at a by-election since 1920.