Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Cameron for that question. Let me just say at the outset that the government stands by all of the claims that the Prime Minister and other ministers have made in relation to these matters. None of the claims were false whatsoever.

Let me just make a broader point to the chamber. What was before the government was a request from a business owned by Coca-Cola Amatil, a business with a $9 billion market capitalisation and which made an after-tax profit of more than $200 million in the first six months of this financial year. It asked the Australian government to make a grant in support of a commercial investment, using taxpayers' money for that purpose. We had a company which had the cash to make its own investment decisions, which had the wherewithal to make the investment decisions it thought were necessary in pursuit of its commercial objectives, asking for money from the government which, as a result of the mismanagement of the previous Labor administration, actually does not have the cash. We have inherited a budget from the Labor Party which is in a complete mess. We have inherited $123 billion worth of cumulative deficits.

Senator Wong interjecting—