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

Revenue forgone—that is a fancy way of calling it a tax hike. If you're going after revenue forgone—this reminds me of a conversation I had with Senator Cameron in a scrutiny of new taxes committee some years ago when he essentially argued that all of the money in the economy is the government's money and through the tax system we decide how much of the money we leave with the people. Our view is that all of the money is the people's money and through the tax system we've only got to take as much as necessary to officially fund the services of government.

We believe in smaller government and lower taxes so that businesses across the community can grow, can prosper, can create jobs and can pay higher wages, whereas your starting position is that all of the money in the economy is yours to take and that you decide through the tax system how much you leave with people.

Senator Wong interjecting—

Let me say that the importance of franking credits to the Australian economy is very simple: they represent tax that has already been paid by companies on shareholders' behalf. That is actually what the Labor Party used to believe. For 20 years this was a bipartisan position, and it took Bill Shorten to walk away from it and to put his hands into the pockets of self-funded retirees and pensioners while trying to pretend that this is about going after the rich. (Time expired)