Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

These answers have been well addressed, indeed, by Senator Patrick himself, and by Senator Cormann. But you've got a Labor Party who just want to find any justification for their hopeless inability to support tax cuts for hardworking Australians. That's what this is about—they're running around, looking under rocks, desperately hoping to find some reason that justifies the fact that they can't bring themselves to vote for tax cuts for hardworking Australians! All of this could've been avoided if they'd just listened to the verdict of the Australian people on 18 May. All of this could've been avoided if they'd just heard that the Australian people were supporting lower taxes, not higher taxes. And the reason that they got their lowest primary vote in 100 years is because of their high-taxing agenda, because you walked around places around the country and misled people. In your home state, Senator Watt, Mr Shorten stood there in front of workers and said, 'Well, I'll think about giving you a tax cut,' but his plan was to actually increase the taxes on those workers.