No one said reform was easy:Cormann
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann insists the government is not shying away from reform despite a tough year selling its first budget.
Senator Cormann says pursuing important economic reform is a “marathon, not a sprint”.
“If it was easy, anyone could do it,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
Senator Cormann says the government is persisting with reforms to make the economy as resilient as possible in the face of global challenges.
Treasurer Joe Hockey, who is en route to the United States for meetings with the G20, IMF and World Bank, will hand down his second budget on May 12.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says it gives the government the opportunity to see if it can bring down a budget that doesn’t inflict a “whole lot of pain” on ordinary Australians.
Mr Hockey flagged last week that Australia is considering taking unilateral action to tackle tax avoidance by multinational companies.
This is despite having been an advocate for a global approach through the OECD during Australia’s 2014 G20 presidency.
“Australia always preserves the right to protect its revenue base unilaterally as we have in the past,” Senator Cormann said on Sunday.
“That doesn’t mean we won’t continue also to pursue strong and effective action in a co-ordinated fashion through the G20.
Senator Cormann said any changes would be included in the budget.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari, who chaired sometimes fiery exchanges with big corporations during a Senate inquiry into tax avoidance last week, said people were fed up with the lack of information and transparency.
“There’s no accusation here that any of this is necessarily evasion,” he told ABC television.
“There’s certainly been a lot of evidence of tax avoidance and tax minimisation.”
Labor wants better laws to tackle it, which can’t be done unless the information is provided, he said.
Later on Sunday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the government’s “no jab, no pay” policy that will deny benefits to parents who don’t immunise their child, unless they are exempted on medical or religious grounds.
He declined to say whether there would be any effect on the budget, saying it was a public health measure rather than a savings measure “to keep our children and our families as safe as possible”.
