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

I have had to look at the worst finance minister in the history of the Commonwealth for six years—first from that side of the chamber and now from this side of the chamber—and I hope that I can keep looking at her for another three years from this side of the chamber. What I would say to Senator Conroy is that the premise of his question is entirely false. We got rid of Labor's carbon tax. We got rid of Labor's mining tax. We reduced taxes for small business in last year's budget. Again in this year's budget we have actually brought the overall tax burden in the economy down as a result of decisions taken by the government. So taxes as a share of GDP now are lower than they would have been under Labor. Under Labor, we were on a trajectory of higher taxes than we have embraced now. You do not understand the medium-term effect of your disastrous policy decisions. You do not understand that your carbon tax and your mining tax had a bad impact on our economy, investment and growth for much longer than your disastrous period in government.