Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

It's good to be back! As I was saying, as a result of the decision by Senators Griff, Patrick, Lambie and Bernardi to support the government's plan for lower income taxes for all working Australians, millions of Australians will get to keep more of their own money. That is going to be good for them, it's going to be good for the economy, it's going to be good for jobs and, of course, it's what the Australian people voted for.

It is, of course, well understood that the government has got a longstanding policy commitment to bring down the price of electricity, including by boosting the supply of gas into the domestic market. Senator Canavan has done an outstanding job, together with Minister Taylor, in helping to bring that about. I think that Senator Canavan would be able to tell you that gas prices today across the east coast market are actually substantially lower than they were at their peak, and, of course, our policy measures so far have had a significant impact. But of course we want to do more.

Let me tell you: you know what the Labor Party were doing while Senator Patrick and Senator Griff were talking to us about public policy? While Senator Lambie was advocating public policy positions with us, do you know what the Labor Party were doing? They were drafting an amendment to change the title of the bill. That is the substantial policy work of the Australian Labor Party after the 2019 election. After the Australian people firmly rejected your high-taxing agenda and your politics of envy, because they knew it would make Australia weaker and would make Australians poorer, here you are; your most substantial contribution to policy debate is to come up with an amendment to change the title of the bill. That is just ridiculous.