Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

Cigars and champagne are all right for higher income earners—that’s okay! We will not say that higher income earners who get a tax cut waste the money because they spend it on a fancy car, an overseas holiday or champagne. I would not make that critique of higher income earners. At the end of the day, how individuals in our society spend their money is up to them. We do not attempt in a Stalinist way to lecture them and say to them, ‘You shouldn’t spend money here or there.’ Sure, we can have proactive campaigns in the area of smoking and gambling—and we should have them—but do not lecture people from a low- or middle-income background about having some moral responsibility in this area in that way. I find it very offensive. Frankly, I hope we would have less money—