Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It is. It is extraordinary, isn't it? There was this insight that Bill Shorten had back then which, for whatever reason, he has now completely abandoned and rejected. So when he said that cutting company tax leads to more jobs and higher wages, we can only take him at his word that now he does not support more jobs or higher wages. He supports suppressed wage growth and fewer jobs. That is a reasonable assertion when you read his own words. Julia Gillard said the same thing and Wayne Swan said it.

The Labor Party, for all of their failings in government, know that this is strong policy and they have chosen to walk away from that. They have chosen to say that now the way to economic growth, under the Labor Party's new platform, is to run bigger deficits—because that is what they were offering at this election: significantly higher deficits, a far longer return to surplus under the Labor Party and all of the drag on economic growth that goes with that. The Labor Party's path to economic growth is tens of billions of dollars in increased taxes—higher taxes on the family home, higher taxes on electricity, higher taxes on individuals and higher taxes on companies. That is the Labor Party's other prescription for economic growth. We know that it does not work.

Senator McKim interjecting—

I hear the interjection from Senator McKim on behalf of the Greens. He is in fundamental agreement with what the Labor Party are offering. I think he said it does work to increase taxes for higher economic growth. I think he said it does work to have higher electricity taxes for higher economic growth. Well, it is difficult to find a credible economist who agrees with the Greens' position, which is now being more and more adopted by the Labor Party.

It is all well and good for the Greens to have those kinds of policies, because the Greens are never going to be in government unless they are pulling the strings of a Labor government. But the Labor Party do, from time to time, occupy the Treasury benches, and Bill Shorten puts himself up as the alternative Prime Minister. He is promoting policies which he knows are bad for economic growth and which lead to lower jobs growth and lower wages. He knows it to be true, yet he pursues those policies. This is now the fundamental divide amongst a number now between the coalition and the Labor Party. Fundamentally, at this election—and we can talk about the lies on Medicare and a range of things—that is what was at stake. We have been endorsed to get on with that strong economic plan and we intend to relentlessly pursue it on behalf of the Australian people.