Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I am not surprised that they want to interject, because even on their side they know that this is a ridiculous proposition. They know that they are standing with highly profitable mining companies and standing against low-income Australians—standing against small business. The opposition have a completely untenable position, and they know it. We have seen in the media in recent days a little bit of backgrounding, a little bit of off-the-record quoting and even a few names—the division within the coalition party room against the hardline position that Mr Abbott, aided and abetted by people like Senator Cormann, have forced on the Liberal party room.

It is starting to dawn on the coalition party room that they are actually going to have to go to the next election and say a number of things which are pretty untenable. They are going to have to go to their small-business constituency and say: 'We stand for high taxes. I know we were once the party of small business, but we now stand for higher taxes.' They are going to have to go to 8.4 million working Australians, I think it is, and say, 'We don't believe you deserve a superannuation increase.' And they are going to have to say that to the approximately 3.6 million low-income Australians, most of them women, who would get a tax break and an increase in their superannuation contributions funded by this package.

It is extraordinary, when we see the sorts of prices Australians are getting for their mineral resources, that those on the other side stand for highly profitable mining companies against working Australians. Those on the other side are prepared to hand back money that mining companies themselves have been prepared to pay. Those on the other side stand against more superannuation for workers, particularly for low-income Australians, and stand for higher profits for mining companies. No amount of distractions and assertions about conspiracies, such as we have seen this morning, is going to distract the Australian people's attention from the simple fact that the coalition stand for more profits for wealthy mining companies while we stand for higher superannuation for working families.

And that goes to the fundamental difference in values between our party and those opposite: we stand for fairness; they stand for more profits for wealthy mining companies. It is an untenable position. Your party room knows it. Many of them are starting to say it, and that is why you are seeking to distract attention now. (Time expired)