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

What I can confirm is that the federal government is working in good faith with the state and territory governments about common challenges that we are considering and about ways we can improve our tax system so that we can strengthen growth and opportunity across Australia. It is true that, at the request of state and territory governments, including state and territory Labor governments, the government is currently in a discovery phase, going through a process of identifying options and possible scenarios. That is what you would expect any good government to do. Would you like us to make decisions without collecting all of the information in order to make an informed judgement? We know that that is what the Labor Party did in government. We know that that was your modus operandi under the Rudd and Gillard governments. But this government actually works cooperatively with the state and territory governments. We engage in good faith with the state and territory governments about opportunities for reform, opportunities to strengthen the economy and opportunities to create more jobs, and of course we are talking about—