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

The senator just confused, here, the decision-making of individual businesses and the decision-making of businesses across the economy in aggregate. The truth is: if taxes are higher, the Australian economy will attract less investment. There's no question about that. If you make it harder for business to be successful, business will be less successful. If you make it harder for business to compete with businesses in other parts of the world, they will be less viable and less profitable. A less viable and less profitable business will hire fewer people. All of this is basic common sense. None of this is rocket science. This is the way the market has worked since time immemorial.

Some people have tried an alternative method. Some people have tried the socialist method of pursuing equality of outcome. They've tried the method of dragging everyone down to the lowest common denominator. And do you know what happens? Everybody ends up poorer. We want Australians to be better off. We want them to get the best possible opportunity to get ahead. (Time expired)