Just look at all the tax free dollars that disappear to off shore tax havens each year from our airports alone.
This makes me so annoyed. Low tax "Havens" include Singapore (17%) and the UK (20%)
Closer to home, the countries that we compete with for Asia / Pacific head offices, all have lower company tax rates than Australia.
The problem is not that companies are choosing to base them selves at "Tax Havens" They are choosing to avoid one of the highest corporate tax countries in the world.
Australia is a very difficult country to do business. Our tax rates are high. Our Industry support is low. Our freight costs are among the highest in the world. It costs more to get a container from the port of Brisbane to Coopers Plains than from the Thai port of Laemchabang to the Port of Brisbane.
Our fair work legislation is a nightmare with awards that typically run from 90 - 400 pages. Its nearly impossible now to employ someone without breaching one of our (frequently conflicting) labour laws.
Our Telecom costs are outrageously high. In Thailand mobile calls & data are about 1/10th that of Australia - and Thailand has better speed.
In other countries - including the UK, you can get access to politicians and senior public servants. In Australia the bureaucrats that can make decisions that can destroy your business are faceless.
Australia is doing everything it can to tell companies that they are not welcome here.
Where would you rather set up? A country that has a tax rate 10 percentage points above neighboring countries, that has high real estate costs, poor telecom support, expensive & poor airport infrastructure and will jail directors who contravene our byzantine workplace laws - or Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong?