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

The Business Council of Australia is clearly a very important organisation, but let me tell you what I'm concerned about. I'm concerned about the fact that Mr Shorten is a wholly owned subsidiary of the CFMEU. Every single one of you are wholly owned subsidiaries of one union or another, and you are selling out Australian workers because, by putting Australian businesses at a competitive disadvantage and forcing businesses in Australia to pay higher taxes than the businesses they compete with in other parts of the world, you are putting jobs in Australia at risk. You are putting wage increases in Australia at risk You know better. You're doing it for base political reasons. You're doing it because you're trying to appeal to the worst instincts of some people in Australia because you believe in the politics of envy, even though you know it's bad for economic prosperity. Bill Shorten believes that the politics of envy will get him into the Lodge. That is why he's doing what he's doing—not because he believes for one minute that what he's promoting now is good for the country.