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

I completely and utterly reject the premise of that question. That is not what the Prime Minister thinks. The Prime Minister has great optimism and great aspiration for all working Australians. The Prime Minister and every single member of his team—every single Liberal-National member and senator—wants all Australians, today and into the future, to have the best possible opportunity to get ahead. We thank those senators on the crossbench who share our aspiration for the Australian people.

We want to ensure that every Australian, today and into the future, has the best possible opportunity to get ahead. That is why we want them to be able to keep more of their own money. That is why we want to ensure that the tax system doesn't conspire against them. That is why we want to ensure that they don't go backwards, because you want to keep income taxes high and you want to stop us from addressing bracket creep. You know that bracket creep is not only a drag on growth but it actually reduces people's purchasing power in real terms. (Time expired)