Finance Minister will work with crossbench, ‘bitterly disappointed’ in One Nation backtrack
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will continue to work with crossbench senators to get the government’s company tax cuts over the line, conceding he was “bitterly disappointed” when One Nation’s Pauline Hanson retracted her support.
Brian Burston formally quit One Nation today, after a public falling-out with the party’s leader over corporate tax cuts.
Senator Burston will support the government’s proposal but the Finance Minister and his government still has more crossbenchers to convince.
Senator Cormann tells Ross Greenwood he still has another four to sway.
“There are ten crossbench senators. So far, four have indicated that they would support our plan to lower business tax rates for all businesses in Australia.
“That means that out of the remaining six, I need to convince another four.”
In terms of One Nation’s struggles, Mr Cormann says his preference would be to have kept the “very firm” agreement the government had reached with the minor party earlier in the year.
“I believed we landed in a place that was good for Australia.
“I was bitterly disappointed when a few months later she decided to walk away from what I thought was a very good agreement in the national interest.”
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