Cormann describes Labor’s policies as akin to communist East Germany
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has laid down the economic gauntlet to Bill Shorten describing Labor’s policies as akin to communist East Germany, in a speech to the Sydney Institute tonight designed to set the philosophical and political battleground for the next election.
In one of the most strident attacks on the Opposition leader by a Turnbull Cabinet Minister since the 2016 election, Senator Cormann accused Mr Shorten of being an economic charlatan attempting to take Labor back to the era of socialism by committing more than $150 billion worth of new taxes.
In an attempt to take the Labor leader head-on over the Opposition’s “tax and spend” policy settings, Senator Cormann accused the Opposition leader of a shameless descent into the politics of envy used by past socialist leaders.
“As he looks ahead to the next election, he has made the deliberate and cynical political judgment that enough Australians have forgotten the historical failure of socialism,” Senator Cormann said.
“The Berlin Wall came down 28 years ago, which means roughly 18 per cent of Australians enrolled to vote were born after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the failure of a system of Government that destroyed the economies of Eastern Europe.
“Bill Shorten now believes the politics of envy will work for him politically if not economically.
“That people will believe him when he pretends that the path to a better life for them is to tax their neighbours, their friends and their family members harder; to demonise aspiration and go after hard working Australians and successful businesses.
“His rhetoric is the divisive language of haves and have nots. It is socialist revisionism at its worst.”
Senator Cormann’s speech is expected to be viewed as an attempt to seize back the economic agenda as the Government flounders in a political quagmire over the citizenship controversy.
Critics within the government have been frustrated over the government’s failure to get traction with its economic agenda with Labor’s ability to capitalise on the internal Coalition battles over second order issues such as gay marriage.
Describing an Australia under Bill Shorten as “duller, poorer — and less equal,” Senator Cormann said Mr Shorten’s policy of raising taxes on the wealthy would destroy the economy, lower wages and increase inequality.
“The next election will be an incredibly important choice for people across Australia. Bill Shorten believes he has already won the next federal election. He is getting increasingly cocky,” he said.
“He believes that his divisive politics of envy will propel him into The Lodge. And in his pursuit of his personal ambition he has even been prepared to trash the legacy of Hawke and Keating, taking Labor back to its failed socialist roots.
“Bill Shorten wants to stoke grievance and resentment with sneering attacks on millionaires.
“He wants to slide into office with the politics of envy and the economics of Disallowed. There was a reason for the historical failure of socialism.”
“Shortenomics”, Senator Cormann claimed, was a “recipe for economic decline and social division”.
“Bill Shorten has overreached in his shift to the left.
“Pursuing the socialist ideal of equality of outcome leads to mediocrity and stagnation. You don’t get a strong and successful economy by taxing the life out of it, or by putting limits on people’s ambition.”
Senator Cormann pointed to a pattern of economic policy by Labor to bring one section of the community down to lift the others up. He pointed to Labor’s plans for permanently higher top marginal tax rate of 49 per cent, reversal of business tax cuts, and tax policies that would affect stay at home mums as being not dissimilar the socialist government of France in 2012 which a 75% income tax on earnings above one million euros, which had to be shelved after wealthy French left the country for other parts of Europe as well as Russia.
“By any international standard, modern Australia has kept faith with the spirit of the fair go while at the same time becoming the envy of the world when it comes to economic growth,” Senator Cormann said.
“Australia has achieved 26 years of continuous economic growth and gross household income per capita has grown at an average annual rate of 1.5 per cent above inflation over the past 30 years.
“Despite the slowdown of wages growth in recent years, according to the OECD, Australia’s has the highest hourly minimum wage rate in the world — ahead of Luxembourg and Belgium respectively in second and third position globally.
Now, Bill Shorten recently said in a speech that “the wealth of your parents is becoming the defining feature and source of your future ... your success in life is predetermined by your parents’ income.”
“This statement, like many he has made before, is patently false.”
Senator Cormann pointed to the 2016 Stanford Poverty and Inequality Report, which ranked Australia sixth out of 24 middle and high income countries for providing opportunity to succeed. Senator Cormann said Australians see through Labor’s class envy politics, despite polling showing an electorate favourable to some of Mr Shorten’s arguments.
“They know that our high intergenerational mobility means that many of today’s low and middle income earners are the high income earners of tomorrow,” Senator Cormann said.
“And they know that by attacking the “rich” of today, what Bill Shorten is really doing is attacking those who want to be the rich of tomorrow, millions of aspirational middle class Australians and their families.”
“If we make it harder for people to be successful there will be fewer successful people.
“Some will leave Australia and go where hard work, risk taking and success are more highly valued and rewarded.
“We will be waving them goodbye at airports around the country — because they won’t be calling Australia home for a while.”
What a pathetic fool cormann is, if all Australians took up negative gearing, the government ,would drop it in a flash, the tax revenue forgone would be humongous.
As it stands the government is relying on bracket creep to balance the budget,again universal take up of negative gearing would kill this idea.
Please you pathetic " right ideologues " come up with some new material relevant to this day and age.
A tip from the wilderness, stop the big four accountancy companies from practicing in this country, and the deficit will be abolished,bloody quickly.
