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

(—) (): I do not agree with the conclusion that Senator Di Natale came to. There is no intention of shifting the tax burden to low and middle income earners. The intention is to improve our tax system. In Australia we have too heavy a reliance on personal income tax. We have been on the public record in relation to that. Too many middle-income Australians are getting into the higher income tax brackets. We have been on the public record with that. There is a need to ensure that our tax system today helps us to improve our productivity and helps us to improve our competitiveness and that over time we are able to strengthen economic growth. The way to do that is by incentivising people to work more, save more and invest more, and obviously personal income tax rates are a part of that conversation. Now, you are jumping to a series of conclusions, making a series of assumptions, in relation to decisions that have not actually been made. (Time expired)