CANBERRA, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government remains "absolutely committed" to its company tax cuts despite significant by-election losses.
The governing Liberal National Party (LNP) failed to win a seat or increase its share of the vote in any of Saturday's five by-elections, raising questions over its legislative agenda.
Senior members of the government identified the planned company tax cut as a major reason for Saturday's losses, going as far as to implore Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to either change the policy or abandon it all together.
Mathias Cormann, the Australian finance minister, on Monday dismisses those suggestions, saying the government was "absolutely committed to this plan."
"It's very important we protect all businesses across Australia from the impact of lower business tax rates in other parts of the world," Cormann told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio on Monday.
"Of course at every election we consider carefully what the people have told us ... but when it comes to the central components of our plan for a stronger and more jobs, we remain absolutely and totally focused."
Under the plan, the tax rate for companies with an annual turnover exceeding 50 million Australian dollars (36.95 million U.S. dollars) would be cut from 30 to 25 percent by 2027.
A similar policy already passed by parliament will cut the tax rate for businesses with a turnover lower than 50 million Australian dollars to 27.5 percent.
Turnbull on Sunday left the door open to changing the policy, saying the focus of the government was on securing a "competitive company tax rate" rather than referring to the specifics of the change.