Rebekha Sharkie, the Centre Alliance member-elect, has unloaded on the Coalition’s corporate tax cut package, warning there was “no evidence” it would boost jobs and claiming similar cuts in the US have failed to boost wages.
Her intervention on Tuesday gives a strong indication that the Centre Alliance will continue to use its two Senate votes to oppose tax cuts for companies earning more than $50m a year, amid a growing Coalition backbench revolt against the tax package. Several Coalition ministers have called for a “competitive” rate while neglecting to endorse the current policy.
Sharkie – who was re-elected in her Super Saturday byelection in Mayo after a lift of almost 10% in her primary vote – said on Tuesday her constituents “clearly don’t” support big business tax cuts, citing an Australia Institute poll in the seat showing 75% opposed the idea.
“The evidence we’ve seen in America is this hasn’t led to wages growth, this hasn’t led to jobs growth,” she told Radio National.
“There’s no evidence that this is going to lead to jobs growth. What we do know is that there will be a leaking of money … overseas to overseas shareholders.
“The government has not convinced us this is the way to grow the economy.”
On Tuesday the Liberal MP Tony Pasin openly questioned the company tax policy, arguing that although it is “the right policy ... the timing just isn’t right”.
Pasin told Sky News that voters in the five Super Saturday byelections had sent the Coalition a “strong message” and company tax cuts would require surplus political capital that he doubted the government had.
Pasin joins Liberal MP Luke Howarth, who has called for the policy to be dumped if it is blocked again by the Senate.
The former prime minister Tony Abbott has also applied the blowtorch to the Coalition on company tax, warning on Monday that while he supports the economic case there are “no votes” in corporate tax cuts.
So far the government’s economic team has resisted calls to dump the big business tax cuts, with the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, saying the Coalition is “absolutely committed” to them.
On Tuesday the Daily Telegraph reported that Malcolm Turnbull is privately warning his ministers that the tax cut package must remain Coalition policy.
Steve Ciobo, the trade minister, promised on Tuesday that the Coalition “will be lower taxing than Labor” but sidestepped questions about whether he wants to ditch the big business tax cuts.
“We have got to make sure that we are competitive globally because if we are not ... the money will go to other countries around the world and Australia will suffer the consequences,” he told ABC News Breakfast.
Asked on ABC’s Q&A on Monday why the Coalition persisted with the package, the communications minister, Mitch Fifield, said it stood for the principle that the community should “have more of their own money in their pockets”.
“It’s about creating the environment and the circumstances where business can thrive, when business does well, then they employ more Australians,” he said.
“The reason why we want to pursue company tax cuts is because if we don’t have a competitive company tax rate … [we are giving] a leg-up to businesses overseas who are in tax regimes which compare favourably to ours.”
To pass the company tax cuts the Coalition needs four more votes from a group of six crossbench senators comprising Centre Alliance, One Nation, Tim Storer and Derryn Hinch.
Hinch has been angling for a compromise to lift the threshold to cut taxes for companies earning more than $50m but exclude companies earning more than $500m.
But Sharkie said the government had not proposed a compromise on the threshold, nor had it provided a guarantee it “will not need to cut essential services”, one of Centre Alliance’s key demands.
“We haven’t changed our position at all,” she said.
