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

I completely reject the premise of that question. I completely reject the premise of the question.

Senator Gallagher interjecting—

Well, I reject the premise of your description of the way the economy was. Let me remind the honourable senator that the last election was actually a referendum on two competing economic plans: your plan for higher taxes—your anti-business, high-taxing, socialist, anti-aspiration agenda—and our pro-opportunity, lower-taxes, pro-growth, pro-business agenda, which Australians judged was a better way to ensure that Australians today and into the future had the best possible opportunity to get ahead.

We will do what we have done in the past. We will pursue a pro-growth, pro-opportunity agenda which will ensure that all Australians have the best possible opportunity to get ahead, and that is of course the basis on which, under our leadership, 1.5 million new jobs were created in the economy in the period prior to this COVID crisis hitting us—1.5 million new jobs. (Time expired)