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

I suspect that the coalition government and the Greens would have to agree to disagree here as to what is good public policy. The whole purpose of this personal income tax cut for hardworking families is to encourage people to work more and to not get penalised by getting into the second highest income tax bracket by making additional effort. The reason it is appropriate for us to use the average earnings measure—the average full-time wage measure that we are using—is because the whole purpose is to provide an incentive for people to work more and earn more without getting penalised by a higher tax rate.