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

These numbers have, of course, all been provided in public, and I'll confirm again that the cost of the tax cuts that are in front of the Senate today, as published in the explanatory memorandum, is $35.6 billion in the period to 2027-28, and the fiscal impact of the amendments that I've circulated over the period to 2027-28 is an increase in revenue of $7.9 billion.

As I'm on my feet, let me just deal with some of the comments that have just been made by Senator Cameron. It is so important for our future economic security and prosperity as a nation that we truly get our head around this. When Senator Cameron talks about trickle-down economics, that is a socialist insult to the free market. I happen to have seen the impact that different economic policy models have had on the quality of life of individuals, their families and the communities they live in. I happen to have seen the impact of the socialist model, the income and wealth distribution model where we want to pursue equality of outcome instead of offering equality of opportunity. I've seen the impact of that. It makes people poor. It makes people poor as individuals. It makes people poor as families. It makes communities poor. It leaves them worse off, because it removes the incentive to be the best you can be. It removes the incentive for people who can succeed and lift everybody up to do the best they can.

The reason I'm a Liberal, the reason I'm a proud member of the Liberal Party and of the Turnbull government, and the reason I'm standing here proudly promoting the benefits for Australian families of a lower, globally more competitive business tax rate is that I believe that policies of promoting freedom, free enterprise, reward for effort and encouraging people to risk themselves and take risks deliver the best possible opportunity for a high quality of life for individuals, their families and the communities they live in—yes, with an appropriately generous social safety net. And do you know what? That's what Paul Keating and Bob Hawke used to believe. That's what Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen used to believe when they were in government. That's what Chris Bowen used to believe as recently as 22 September 2015.

There's only one reason the Labor Party have taken the position that they have. It is because, in the lead-up to the 2016 election, Bill Shorten made a political decision that this was going to offer him the best political prospect to differentiate himself from the Turnbull Liberal-National Party government and that he could run an antibusiness populist agenda which would win him votes and help him, ultimately, to secure his political aspiration of becoming Prime Minister. He doesn't believe that he's pursuing the right agenda for Australia. Let me tell you: if we end up with a government that is elected on an antibusiness agenda of the politics of envy, class warfare and equality of outcome, all Australians will end up poorer, because an antibusiness agenda, making it harder for businesses to be successful across Australia, means that we'll have fewer jobs. We'll end up with fewer jobs. And do you know what happens when we create fewer jobs in the economy? There are more people unemployed and, as more people are unemployed, the wages of workers around Australia go down because there's less competition for workers. Less demand and increased supply means lower wages.

If we want to ensure that families around Australia today and into the future have the best possible opportunity to get ahead, we need to ensure that there is incentive for businesses to invest in their future growth. We've got to ensure that business has an incentive to take risks, to pursue opportunities and to sell Australian products and services around the world and here domestically. If we make it harder for Australian businesses to sell Australian products and services overseas and here in Australia, if we make it easier for businesses overseas to take business and investment away from us, we will be sending jobs from Australia overseas, and our children and grandchildren will not thank us for that.

Again, this is something that the Australian Labor Party used to understand. The Australian Labor Party used to understand that, in order to ensure that workers around Australia could succeed, the businesses that employed them had to have the opportunity to succeed. But this has changed under Mr Shorten as opposition leader and Leader of the Labor Party—sadly, supported by the Australian Greens and by a number of others, though not the majority in the Senate so far. A majority in the Senate was clearly prepared to give the government's plan for a lower, globally more competitive business tax rate the benefit of the doubt and is prepared to have this debate in committee, and we thank the Senate for that.

If we allow ourselves to be dragged down into this rhetoric around trickle-down economics and anti-business class-warfare politics-of-envy rhetoric Australians will end up poorer for it. Low-income Australians will be worse off as a result. We need to vote in support of business creating more jobs and attracting more investment so that the increased competition for workers around Australia drives up wages. As I said in my summing-up speech in the second reading debate, the evidence is very clear that in the United States, as a result of the Trump administration's tax cuts, that is precisely what is happening. That is what we should offer to workers here in Australia. The government, by moving the amendments that I've moved, is removing and carving out the big four banks. Let's take them out, but let's make sure that all of those big employers across Australia competing with big businesses from other parts of the world have the best possible opportunity to successfully compete with them so they can continue to hire millions of Australians and can continue to buy products and services from small and medium-sized businesses here in Australia—instead of helping businesses overseas hire people overseas and buy more products and services from small and medium-sized businesses overseas.