Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I have a genuine enormous regard for the Minister for Finance's intellect, his hard work, and his great work ethic, so that is why I am quite surprised that he has completely failed to answer the question. Perhaps I need to rephrase the question. There are $4 billion worth of tax cuts. ACOSS, the Australian Council of Social Services, is an organisation that worked in good faith and successfully with Minister Morrison, when he was the Minister for Social Services, to bring about changes to the tapering rates, which was something that was opposed by the Australian Labor Party and the Greens. So you cannot put ACOSS in the camp of saying that they are always against the government, because they worked constructively with the government on that piece of legislation. ACOSS says:

It is unconscionable that at the same time this Bill is being considered, Social Security Bills before the Parliament propose cuts to payments for the poorest households, including $50 a week for a sole parent with two teenage children with no private income and $47 for an unemployed 23 year old.

That is something that Senator Whish-Wilson has well traversed so I will not repeat that. But the particular question I have—and something that I think Senator Whish-Wilson would refer to as going into the 'granular details'— is that this modelling does not go into those granular details of what the economic impact would be. What would the impact be if some of that money was diverted to the Automotive Diversification Program, or the Automotive Transformation Scheme—which is due to be underspent by $1.24 billion—and was actually spent in stronger economic growth for those industries? What would the impact be if it was spent on businesses such as a SupaShock in Adelaide which, with a bit of assistance, could accelerate its economic growth and its business plan, to go from 20 to 120 employees much sooner than under its current business plan, and could get those export markets? The point is—and I worry that the minister is looking a bit bored—that in terms of stronger economic growth—