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

Thank you. The point we're making, which those opposite should listen carefully to, is that when you provide company or indeed personal income tax relief, all you're doing is allowing people who earn that money to keep it. It's not the government's money; it belongs to those who earned it, and that's what we on this side of the House believe. Those on that side of the House think they own everything in your pocket, that they have an entitlement to collect it all and that, what they're good enough to let you keep, you should be thankful for! That's not what the Liberal and National parties believe. That's what the Labor Party believe. That's why they refuse to be constrained on their taxes. We know that the shadow Treasurer—when he became the shadow Treasurer many years ago back in 2013—went proudly to the National Press Club and said that the key test for the government is that they don't allow taxes to rise above 23.7 per cent. He's backflipped on that like he's backflipped on everything he believes in when it comes to someone with an interest in economic policy. If there's a wind blowing outside, the shadow Treasurer better not go outside, because he'll be changing his mind in a heartbeat, because he can never keep to any position! You have to keep guard rails on your tax and on your spending at 23.9 per cent. When you go above that, that's too much tax. We believe too much tax is too much tax, that it suffocates the economy. The Labor Party are going to put a tax burden of over $200 billion on the Australian economy. That is like a snake eating itself from the tail! That's the image they should put on the front of their tax plan, because that's what they will do to the Australian economy if they ever get the chance!

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