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

We've got Bill Shorten here, standing up for the top end of town, trying to help the top end of town, at the expense of Australian workers. He's standing up for the top end of town in the United States; he's standing up for the top end of town in the UK; he's standing up for the top end of town in France, in Sweden—in just about every other country around the world where there are lower business taxes than here in Australia. He is working to help businesses in other parts of the world take business investment and jobs away from Australia. That is what Bill Shorten is trying to do. He is so desperate to assist the top end of town in countries around the world, to lock in their competitive advantage at our expense, that he will stop at nothing. He will stop at nothing.

We believe that it is incumbent on us as a government and it is incumbent on the Senate to engage for as long as is necessary to find a compromise on the appropriate way forward. I think the Australian people would take a very dim view of us here as senators if we didn't allow this debate to be conducted in an orderly and proper fashion, as set out in the government's business agenda. This is yet another example of the Labor Party playing games.

Anthony Albanese is spot on. Anthony Albanese is spot on when he says that the antibusiness agenda of Bill Shorten is bad for our country. This is another demonstration of the approach taken by the Labor Party under Bill Shorten. Under Bill Shorten the Labor Party now is antibusiness, antigrowth, antiopportunity, and focused on the politics of envy and class warfare, turning Australian against Australian. What the Labor Party seems to have forgotten—and what Bob Hawke and Paul Keating well understood—is that, with nine out of 10 working Australians working for a private sector business, their future job opportunities, job security, career prospects and wage increases depend on the future viability and future profitability of the businesses that employ them and pay their wages.

Bill Shorten is happy—