The Turnbull government will ramp up its campaign for deeper company tax cuts over the coming weeks as it seeks to convince the Senate that following Donald Trump's economic lead will help extend Australia's record-breaking run of job creation.
But Labor has been quick to rule out changing course on the $65 billion cut when Federal Parliament returns next month, describing it as an "extraordinary waste of money".
Treasurer Scott Morrison returned to work on Sunday to trumpet last week's jobs figures, which showed employment rose every month in 2017 - the first time that's happened in a calender year since records began four decades ago.
The economy added nearly 400,000 jobs between December 2016 and December 2017 - and Mr Morrison believes the government's first round of company tax cuts, which passed in March last year, was a key reason for the "extraordinary" numbers.
The first round cut the corporate tax rate for companies with turnovers of up to $50 million. But with a seemingly immovable opposition and a deeply sceptical crossbench, the government faces a much tougher time convincing the upper house to support its plan to cut the corporate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent for all businesses over the next decade.
The Senate has already rejected the plan once. The government reintroduced its bill late last year, and it will be a key focus when parliament resumes on February 5.
Signalling the government also remains committed to delivering income tax cuts in 2018, Mr Morrison said 2018 could be a "year of opportunity" for businesses and workers.
"They need to be supported with the right policies and that means easing the tax burden both on Australian businesses and hard-working Australians," he said.
"And that's what the government is focused on in 2018 as we work towards the budget and as we come back to the parliament to seek support for the enterprise tax plan."
Mr Morrison claims the United States is already seeing a "dramatic" impact of President Trump's corporate tax cut - from 35 per cent to 21 per cent - even though it only passed in December and came into effect on January 1.
"We have the opportunity now to catch up," Mr Morrison said.
"We had the opportunity before to get ahead and as a result of the obstruction from the Labor Party we were unable to do that."
But Labor's finance spokesman, Jim Chalmers, said the government was living on an "entirely different planet" if they thought a $65 billion "gift" to the top end of town would deliver for ordinary Australians.
"We think that is an extraordinary waste of money," he said. "These characters are so out of touch that they want the Australian people to believe that if you give more tax breaks to millionaires to multinationals that somehow we'll get economic growth in this country."
The average OECD corporate tax rate has now fallen to 22 per cent, meaning even a cut to 25 per cent would only take Australia back into the middle of the pack.
Another key economic test for the government in 2018 will be be whether the strong jobs numbers translates into wages growth, which has been stubbornly stuck at or below inflation at 1.8 per cent, making everyday items more expensive for consumers.
Mr Morrison says he is optimistic.
"We expect that as the labour force continues to tighten - and this is also the view of the Reserve Bank and other respected economists - we can expect to see that flow through to wages in the course of this year and beyond," he said.