Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

It is absolutely no secret that the Australian economy is facing global economic headwinds and is dealing with some downside risks in the domestic economy—it is absolutely no secret at all—which is of course why Labor's agenda of higher taxes and the politics of envy was precisely the wrong way to go. It would have made our economy weaker. It would have put jobs at risk. It would have left all families worse off. In a way, we've actually won that policy argument, because the Labor Party, having argued for $387 billion in higher taxes in the campaign, are now saying that we should have more tax cuts sooner because that's the right thing to do by the economy. On one hand you say that we need more taxes for the economy and we can't legislate tax cuts in the future because that's bad for the economy, and now you're saying that we need more tax cuts sooner, even though the budget can't afford that.