Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

We entered this pandemic from a position of economic strength, having brought the budget back to the point of balance for the first time in 11 years. This provided us with the fiscal artillery to be able to respond comprehensively throughout the pandemic, with $311 billion in direct economic and health support. JobKeeper; the coronavirus supplement; record business tax investments, to drive more investment through the economy; introducing and extending temporary full expensing and loss carry-back arrangements—all of them have helped to ensure that our economy gets through COVID strongly and comes out of it strongly.

At the same time, $10.2 billion in tax relief flowed to 11½ million Australians, just during the September quarter—the largest tax cuts to flow in a single quarter in 20 years. We have been able to do all of this because we have stuck to our plan, kept our economy strong and kept Australian businesses strong, and the world can only wonder what it would've been like had the Labor Party and their higher taxes been there, instead of the actions that we have taken to keep such strength. (Time expired)