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

As I have indicated before, not only does the government always support lowering the overall tax burden in the economy where that is possible; that is also our track record, in particular if you look at the most recent budget, where the net effect of policy decisions on the revenue side of the budget is a reduction in the overall tax burden on the economy. But of course that does not mean that we do not pursue reforms to improve the tax mix to ensure that the tax system is more growth friendly and also fairer and more sustainable.

We did put forward a set of proposals in relation to working holiday-makers in 2015. There were some concerns raised in relation to the original measures. The government listened to industry and stakeholder concerns and also, very carefully, to the strong representations of Liberal and National members and senators on how the proposed reforms could be improved in a way that does not detract from the budget bottom line, and that is what we have done. (Time expired)