Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

That is why we did it back in 2000 under Prime Minister Howard and Treasurer Costello. It was done to promote growth and to promote jobs—and that is what it did. But we found out this week from the Leader of the Opposition what the objective of those opposite is when it comes to tax. He said: 'In terms of tax reform, we're proposing a way of finding revenue.' For those on that side, the tax debate is all about how they can jack up taxes to raise revenue. That is why they want to bring back the carbon tax. They want to do that because they want to raise revenue that would cost jobs. That is why they want to bring back the mining tax. They want to raise revenue without providing compensation, tax cuts or any of that. They just want to jack up taxes to raise revenue, because that side of the House they think the way to balance a budget is to raise taxes—well, not on this side of the House. On this side of the House, we balance the budget by controlling expenditure and ensuring we have growth.

But now we have their latest proposal: the ciggies tax. The party who brought us the tax that raised no revenue—the mining tax—are now the party who think they can deal with those issues by putting a tax on a shrinking base. Not only that, while they come here and complain about the welfare impacts—

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