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

The historical failure of socialism has shown that, if you want to tear down those who are successful and those who are contributing to our success as a nation, then what you will do is lead to mediocrity, to less investment, fewer jobs and lower wages and you end up with less opportunity for people to get ahead. There are examples all around the world. If you want to make-believe that the way to create more opportunity is by tearing down people who are successful, there will be two things that happen in that circumstance: people who can be successful might leave or they will lose the incentive of stretching themselves and doing the best they can. Neither of them are good outcomes for our country, and this is not something that we believe is the best way forward for Australia. I believe that Australians will not support an agenda that will seek to turn Australia into a socialist economy.