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

We are a party that believes in fairness and opportunity. Unlike the Greens, we also understand that you have to grow the economy if you are to deliver the sorts of fairness and opportunity that this government is delivering. Whilst I suspect Senator Milne may not like to be reminded: this is an economy that is 13 per cent bigger than it was prior to the global financial crisis—there is not a lot of fairness in economies which are still smaller than they were prior to the GFC, economies which are still struggling to get back to the same size. More importantly, economies with double-digit unemployment—

Senator Brandis interjecting—

I will take the interjection, because the suggestion is from the economic Luddite opposite that somehow Australia is akin to Greece. The talking down of the economy is from Senator Brandis who believes pomposity equates to intelligence. It does not: pomposity does not equate to intelligence. What he might like to be reminded of is the 800,000 jobs that have been created since we were elected at a time when millions and millions of people worldwide had lost their jobs. If you want to look at what flies absolutely in the face of fairness, what increases poverty and inequity, it is high levels of unemployment. That is why we on this side have made jobs and economic growth a priority.

In terms of taxation and those issues that were alluded to in the first part of the question, I would make this point: this government has made tax relief, particularly for working people in this country, a priority.

Senator Abetz interjecting—

Senator Abetz might like to joke about this— (Time expired)