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) (14:54): Firstly, I thought that was a very important intervention by some of the most senior business leaders and some of the biggest employers around Australia. The Labor Party doesn't seem to care about jobs. We on this side of the parliament care about jobs. We understand that some of our biggest employers in Australia started as small businesses. Take Qantas, for example. Qantas started with three employees in Longreach, in regional Queensland, and today employs 30,000 people and is engaged in a fiercely competitive industry globally. It is an iconic Australian brand. With your decision to oppose business tax cuts, you are deliberately putting this business at an additional competitive disadvantage. Senator Watt: They don't pay tax. Senator CORMANN: The ignorant Senator Watt says that they pay no tax. They made $3 billion worth of losses, and you don't pay tax when you make a loss. What Labor doesn't understand is that investment decisions today are based on your expectations of future opportunity to make a profit. Senator Kim Carr: Mr President, I rise on a point of order going to relevance. The question went directly to the proposition that eight per cent of the BCA's CEOs are prepared to increase investment. The minister was asked a direct question on that and has come nowhere near that. I'd ask you to ask him to return to the question. The PRESIDENT: The minister, in my view, is being relevant to the terms of the question asked, which included reference to another document. Senator CORMANN: Alan Jones is one of the signatories to the letter. Alan Jones and his management team have been able to turn the situation around at Qantas, and they are now profitable again—and, of course, they will pay tax once the accumulated losses of the past have been paid down. But, if we put them at a competitive disadvantage, it will directly impact on the job security of 30,000 Qantas employees and directly impact on the opportunities for the 3,000 small- and medium-size businesses that supply goods and services to Qantas. It would also directly impact on the job security of the many Australians who work for the 3,000 businesses that supply those goods and service to Qantas. Qantas are one of our champion businesses, and you want to make it harder for them to be successful. You want to put the job security of employees in businesses such as Qantas at risk. That is the implication of your decision to stand in the way of big tax cuts. Senator Cameron: Mr President, on a point of order: can I ask you to have a look at the ruling that you just made that, if the opposition mentions a letter and a specific part of the letter, the specific question is then not relevant because it was in a letter. Surely that is not an appropriate position. The PRESIDENT: I am happy to review the Hansard and come back to you, Senator Cameron. But a reference to an external document is incorporated in part of the question, so the minister may address that part of the question as well. Senator Ketter, on a supplementary question.