Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister for Finance, Special Minister of State and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:12): I thank Senator Cameron. I watched that same interview, and the journalist quite strangely put the proposition to the Prime Minister that there had been no wages growth. That was of course patently false. We have had wages growth of two per cent—above inflation, above CPI—and the Prime Minister made the accurate point that as you continue to have growth, as you continue to have a situation where a business is more successful and more profitable and has to compete for workers in the Australian economy, then obviously the laws of supply and demand mean that wages will increase by more. You've got to remember, we inherited the situation where the unemployment rate was heading to in excess of 6¼ per cent, to the point where the shadow Treasurer said, in his Press Club speech after we won the election, that one of the three measures of economic success for this government would be whether we could keep the unemployment rate below 6.25 per cent. Guess what: it's at 5.5 per cent. And part of the reason why we've been able to keep the unemployment rate comparably low is because of flexibility in the labour market. That means that wages have grown by less than they have in the past. The alternative would've been a higher unemployment rate, but we are— Senator Cameron: Mr President, a point of order on relevance—I did ask specifically about the Australian Bureau of Statistics' measure of wage growth at two per cent or whether it was the measure of company profit growth at 20 per cent. The minister has not gone near those issues. The PRESIDENT: Senator Cameron, your question also had a preamble. I do consider the minister to be addressing the terms of your question. Senator Cormann? Senator CORMANN: Thank you very much, Mr President. I was directly addressing the question. Wages have been growing, and we expect them to grow by more in the years ahead—in particular, if the Senate supports the government's proposal to reduce business taxes for all businesses to 25 per cent, because it will help incentivise businesses to invest more in their productivity. It will help ensure that more profitable and more successful businesses can hire more Australians and pay them better wages. And as more profitable businesses have to compete for fewer and fewer workers in the Australian economy, as excess labour in the market reduces, of course wages pressure will increase. I'm sure that is something that Senator Cameron, as a former union leader, understands very well. I'm certain Senator Cameron understands very well that if you have less supply of labour and more demand then prices will go up. (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Cameron, a supplementary question?