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

Senator Whish-Wilson is misrepresenting what I said yesterday. I did not say that no economic modelling was done by Treasury in relation to the impact of tax measures in the budget. As I indicated yesterday, these are matters that have publicly been well and truly ventilated and the relevant information was published some time ago. For the benefit of Senator Whish-Wilson and the Senate, I table some relevant information about the economy wide modelling for the 2016-17 budget in terms of the government's tax and superannuation plan that was in the budget. Of course, I answered a relevant question yesterday as well and Hansard will bear that out.

In relation to the other questions, no, the government has not conducted modelling to that level of granular detail that Senator Whish-Wilson is now asking about. That is not what normally would happen. Let me just say again that these tax cuts apply equally to all Australians. These tax cuts apply equally to all average full-time wage-earners in Australia, who, if we do not pass this legislation, would face a 37 per cent marginal tax rate this year instead of staying in the lower tax rate.