The new Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has indicated his government would be looking at calibrating certain "tax levers" in order to help Australia seize what he sees as an opportunity and make his country into a more significant player as a global financial centre.
The Prime Minister was asked about the government's approach to creating a fintech hub in Australia at the launch of IPO and placements platform OnMarket Bookbuilds yesterday.
Mr Turnbull noted that the Australian tax structure could be seen as an impediment to taking on other regional financial hubs.
"I have always felt that Australia should be a bigger financial centre than it is," Mr Turnbull said.
There are "powerful arguments" in favour of Australia becoming a larger financial centre, Mr Turnbull said. "We have the huge advantage of a gigantic superannuation industry with a gigantic funds management industry – and that is an enormous base upon which to build," he said.
"We’ve got strong financial and prudential regulation, and we’ve got some of the best banks in the world by any measure. There is a first-class legal system, so we’ve got everything going for us here. We’ve got all of the same features – other than scale – that London has," he said.
