Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

That of course would have been an option, Senator Fielding, through you, Mr President. But we believed that in the interests of the overall economy and the welfare of Australian families, in the interests of ensuring that Australians get fair reward for the work that they do and to ensure that our tax system remains internationally competitive, our effort—to the extent possible—should be put into reducing income taxation and increasing family payments. I think you would agree that they were sensible and important reforms. We do think that fiddling with the excise rate in response to fluctuations in world oil prices is the wrong thing to do. Ipso facto, you are suggesting that when world oil prices decline, you should be increasing excise. That would be a silly approach to policy. We think the right thing to do was to reduce the tax burden on Australian families. That has, of course, made it easier for them to pay for the higher petrol prices which we now experience.