Greens Treasury Spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, provides the following comments on the secret Business Council of Australia survey that reportedly showed that Australian businesses say they are more likely to put the company tax cut into shareholder buy-backs than into wages or jobs.
Senator Whish-Wilson said, “Today in the Australian Financial Review, a ‘smoking gun’ revealed that the BCA tried to bury a survey of their members that showed that the majority of Australia’s biggest companies were not likely to raise wages or hire workers from the company tax cuts. Instead, CEOs indicated that they would return money to shareholders or conduct share buybacks, which undoubtedly would lead to higher share valuations and CEO pay-rises.
“This is a scandal of the highest order. The BCA have been caught stuffing yellow sticky tape down their pants. They have been caught out making big public statements and representations to Senators without any evidence to back these up, in fact the evidence now shows there narrative is just spin”.
“This is a significant matter of public importance, with considerable interest in the policy debate, the BCA should now immediately release to the public the full results of this survey”.
“This scandal must cause Pauline Hanson to immediately withdraw her support for these big business tax cuts. She has had the wool pulled over her eyes and now has an opportunity to change her mind. The only way she comes out of this without looking like a patsy for the spin doctors in the business world is to revoke her support for the corporate tax cuts.
“And for Senator Derryn Hinch, you don’t want to be seen as a patsy for big business who will say one thing publicly and another privately. You must join in in calling for the BCA to release the full results of this secret survey,” he concluded.
Greens Treasury Spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson
