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

What we have done in this budget is face up to the facts. One of the facts that we have to deal with is that after six years of Labor manufacturing in Australia was in decline. The cost of doing business in Australia after six years of Labor kept going up and up. The carbon tax, excessive red tape, budget mismanagement, all of that has contributed to a circumstance where manufacturing in Australia when we came into government was in decline. We inherited an economy growing below trend, rising unemployment, consumer confidence too low, business investment which had plateaued. We are working on turning that situation around and we want to do it by creating a stronger environment in which all businesses, large and small, can prosper. We want those businesses to prosper that genuinely produce and deliver goods and services that people actually want. So we are not here unashamedly continuing to provide subsidies for businesses that no longer produce products that people actually want; we want all businesses to be genuinely— (Time expired)