Treasurer Scott Morrison has left the door open to the government dumping part of its 10-year, $50 billion company tax plan in the 2017 May budget.
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Mr Morrison has also highlighted other government measures, including infrastructure spending, its innovation and defence industry spending plans, as well as a plan to redefine a small business as having a turnover of up to $10 million, up from $2 million, as examples of how it will drive economic growth - if it dumps the elements of the company tax plan it cannot win support for.
The federal government is expected to secure support from the Senate crossbench in the next week for a tax cut for companies with a turnover of up to $10 million.
Labor will only back a cut for companies with a turnover of up to $2 million, while the Greens do not support lowering the rate from 30 to 27.5 per cent.
The Xenophon team have indicated they could support a cut for companies turning over up to $10 million, while Pauline Hanson's One Nation has suggested it could support a cut for companies turning over up to $50 million - while also arguing payroll tax, a state tax, should be cut first.
The government has avoided, to date, saying whether it would keep the plan - which is to give all companies a cut to 25 per cent over 10 years to 2026-27, at a cost of about $48 billion, as policy after the 2017 budget.
In Parliament, Labor sharpened its attack on the Treasurer over what the government's policy would be after the May budget.
Labor treasury and finance spokesman Chris Bowen and Jim Chalmers asked: "Will the government's full $50 billion worth of corporate tax cuts that were in the 2016 budget be in the 2017 budget?"
Mr Morrison ducked the question, twice, and instead attacked the opposition, highlighted Mr Bowen's previous support for a cut to 25 per cent and demanded they support the policy.
"The nation should be aiming for a 25 per cent corporate tax rate. It's all lined up, mate. All you have to do is come into this place and vote for it," he said.
Earlier, the Treasurer said the "the changes for small business would be the biggest changes in tax reform for small business for many years. We are changing the definition of a small business from a turnover of up to $2 million to a turnover of up to $10 million".
In a subsequent interview on Sky News, Mr Morrison again would not say what the government would do if it could only pass some of the company tax cut.
"We put these measures in the budget, we took them to an election, we have put them into the Parliament and there is an opportunity for the Parliament to support these changes."
If the government took the parts of the company tax plan it cannot get through the Parliament off the books, it would avoid a $43 billion hit to the budget bottom line over a decade.
That money could also help shore-up Australia's AAA credit rating, though the government has repeatedly argued that the cut is designed to drive economic growth and stimulate job creation, or it could be used to spend on other programs.
