Senator REYNOLDS (Western Australia) (15:19): I, too, rise to take note of the answer provided by Minister Cormann. But, first of all, I have a confession to make to this chamber. When I spoke this morning on the new tax bill, I inadvertently misled the chamber. I said that we had had 16 consecutive months of jobs growth in this country, the longest run of jobs growth ever. However, I now apologise to the chamber, because it was actually 17 consecutive months of jobs growth, which is still the longest run of jobs growth ever, on record, here in this country. So my apologies for that misleading statement.

Listening to the debate in the chamber today, to the questions and the speeches in taking note of answers from those opposite, all I can think is how much those opposite would benefit from the year 7 and year 8 economics and business study books in our schools, because any grade 7 or grade 8 student would know exactly the fallacy of what those opposite say. We heard this morning from the Greens that the solution to economic growth is investment. Well, those of us on this side agree that we do need to invest in infrastructure and social programs. But what you never hear from those opposite, and what we certainly haven’t heard in these speeches on the take-note motion from those opposite, is where the money is coming from.

As I observed this morning, there is no little group of fairies at the bottom of the garden that sprinkle money-dust over the economy, just as there is no magic pudding of money. We have to earn the money. And, if you want to spend it, you have to tell us how you’re going to raise it. Just spending money without actually saying where the money is coming from is not economic anything.

What have we got from those opposite? I’d just like to remind those opposite of what has been said by those who are a bit more honest, or have been more honest in the past, about what it takes to generate national wealth, and why company tax rates in the current world taxation environment are so important. What do you think Julia Gillard said as Prime Minister about the importance of tax cuts? She said this:

If you are against cutting company tax, you are against economic growth. If you are against economic growth, then you are against jobs.

How right she was then. All of you opposite know that what she said then was correct and what you’re saying now is not. Let’s have a look at Bill Shorten and what he himself has said on a lower corporate tax rate:

The Government’s tax reform agenda has a strong focus on ensuring that Australia remains an attractive place to invest.

…   …   …

Cutting the company tax rate is an important step along this road.

This recognises the benefits to investment and growth from lower company tax rates and a trend to lower rates across the OECD over the past 30 years.

It is not only disingenuous.

This is probably the most important measure this government has introduced, I believe, in this chamber since it was re-elected, because it is critically important, in this global economy, that we continue to not only make free trade agreements but also enable our companies to be profitable, to employ and to grow their workforce. And we can see these policies are working, through the evidence of our tax cuts and other incentives for small business, who employ 6.7 million Australians. They are expanding; they are growing. In fact, nearly a million jobs have been created—new jobs, mostly full time, and a majority of them for women. These are new jobs.

As I said, 17 consecutive months of economic growth and jobs growth are something we should be proud of and not trying to undermine in a cynical attempt to get the post-budget address-in-reply speech by the Leader of the Opposition leading up to the next election—the messages of division, of lack of hope and of fear. I think those opposite should be ashamed, because, as they well know, to survive in the 21st-century economy we need to grow the economy. We need to provide support not just to small businesses but to larger businesses so that they can grow, compete, export and employ more Australians.