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

Thank you very much, Mr President. I was directly addressing the question. Wages have been growing, and we expect them to grow by more in the years ahead—in particular, if the Senate supports the government's proposal to reduce business taxes for all businesses to 25 per cent, because it will help incentivise businesses to invest more in their productivity. It will help ensure that more profitable and more successful businesses can hire more Australians and pay them better wages. And as more profitable businesses have to compete for fewer and fewer workers in the Australian economy, as excess labour in the market reduces, of course wages pressure will increase. I'm sure that is something that Senator Cameron, as a former union leader, understands very well. I'm certain Senator Cameron understands very well that if you have less supply of labour and more demand then prices will go up. (Time expired)