Tony Abbott backs international moves to stop corporate tax minimisation
|
Version 0 of 1. The prime minister has signalled support for an international move to crack down on large companies shifting their profits around to minimise paying tax. Tony Abbott, speaking at the New York stock exchange, said, “You cannot love jobs and hate the entities that create them”, and chose his words carefully when talking about corporate tax minimisation, saying he thought most countries could agree they did not want to see international tax minimisation. “I am not saying that it is easy to resolve it but I think the broad principle should be that, generally speaking, people should pay tax in the countries where they make the money,” he said. “People should pay tax where they raise their revenue and I think that is the kind of principle that all of us can agree on. We have now got to try to build a system of rules that fairly puts that into practice.” Asked if his comments were aimed at companies such as Apple and Google, Abbott replied he did not want to “pick fights”. International tax minimisation is expected to be on the agenda of the G20 in Brisbane in November; the issue remains a hot topic among the countries. Earlier this year, at the meeting of the G20 finance ministers in Sydney, a global standard for the worldwide automatic exchange of tax information was agreed to. Abbott sidestepped another question about whether he had concerns about the way markets were regulated and “ordinary” investors were protected. He said there was always a balance between freedom and protections that was never at one time perfectly achieved. “If we over-protect people and limit freedom, we will damage our economic future. If we under-protect people we will damage our economic future. So, this is the kind of judgment that sensible people make from time to time,” he said. In his opening remarks Abbott showed strong support for the private sector. “I want to make this very strong point: you cannot love jobs and hate the entities that create jobs. You cannot have a strong economy without strong and profitable private businesses because private businesses are the engine of job creation,” he said. When asked who he was saying hated Australian business, Abbott responded: “The point I made was that it is impossible to love jobs and to hate the people who create jobs. That is the point I made. I’m not saying that any particular individuals are guilty but it is a very important point to make. If you want to see job creation, you have got to support the people who create jobs and the people who create jobs are strong and productive and profitable private business.” Abbott is visiting New York during an overseas tour which has taken him to France and Canada before North America. He attended a dinner at Rupert Murdoch’s private residence on Tuesday night local time. Abbott also addressed comments made by Hillary Clinton in her memoir, Hard Choices, that the former prime minister Julia Gillard experienced “outrageous sexism” while in office. “Prime minister Gillard faced all sorts of difficulties in her time as prime minister. Every prime minister faces all sorts of difficulties in his or her time as prime minister. I am not going to buy into what Hillary Clinton says in her book. I am sure she is more than capable of speaking for herself,” he said. Clinton is in New York promoting her book and Abbott said he hoped for a face-to-face meeting. He also reiterated his comments on climate action made in Canada, that an emissions trading scheme was not the way to address the issue, citing the economy as more important. “I don’t believe that the best way to improve the environment is to clobber the economy and I am not going to take climate-change action which does clobber the economy. We are not going to have any rearguard action in favour of a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme in Australia. We’re going to take direct action to get our emissions down,” he said. “Climate change is a significant global issue; it is a very significant global issue. Is it the most important issue the world faces right now? I don’t believe so.” |