Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

FRYDENBERG (—) (): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and I thank the member for Wentworth for his question. I had the opportunity to join him recently in his electorate to visit a small business to see how they had benefitted from JobKeeper and now their doors are open and they're continuing employ a significant number of staff.

When the coalition came to government we took over from a Labor Party who had put in place more than $90 billion in higher taxes. We remember them: the carbon tax, the mining tax, higher taxes on superannuation, higher taxes on income earners. Since we've come to government, we've been cutting taxes—cutting taxes for families, cutting taxes for small businesses to their lowest level in 50 years. We've been putting in place the largest investment incentives, using the tax system, in Australia's history. The net result of our initiatives has helped drive the unemployment rate to 4.2 per cent, the lowest in more than 13 years, and now on a track to be the lowest in some 50 years. That is our economic record: cutting taxes and creating more jobs.

But we can't put our economic recovery at risk with a Leader of the Opposition, a leader of the Labor Party, who believes in higher taxes. You see, Labor has opposed our tax cuts every step of the way. The Leader of the Opposition said that our tax cuts for families were the 'the top end of town'. He described families and small businesses as the top end of town. The Leader of the Opposition went to the last election supporting a retiree tax, a housing tax, more taxes on superannuation, more taxes on income earners and a tax on family business. Do you know what the Leader of the Opposition said about those taxes? That Labor had 'a strong mandate' for them. And he supported the carbon tax. He said he was determined to get on with it. He supported the mining tax and he said that the mining companies should pay for it. That was his language—language you can't walk away from. The Leader of the Opposition has also, at a previous Labor conference, moved a motion in favour of death duties—death duties!

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