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) (14:57): I'm really shocked at how ignorant the Labor Party is in 2018. Senator Ketter is from Queensland. So let me go back to my Queensland example of Qantas. Qantas started with three employees in Longreach, and today they employ 30,000 people. Senator Watt: They pay no tax. Senator CORMANN: 'They pay no tax,' says the other big champion for Queensland. That's because they made $3 billion worth of losses. The PRESIDENT: Senator Collins, on a point of order. Senator Jacinta Collins: Again it's on relevance. This question could not be more clear and direct, and the minister is going nowhere near it. The question asked the minister to confirm that, of the 10 CEOs who signed the letter, five lead companies did not pay company tax last year. Can he confirm that or not? The PRESIDENT: Senator Collins, on the point of order: I was listening very carefully to the minister and, at least in my listening, he seemed to be addressing that very point with respect to one particular organisation. I'm listening carefully. Senator Jacinta Collins interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Senator Collins, you know that I cannot instruct a minister how to answer a question. Senator CORMANN: The reason that company tax cuts are important for the future success of even businesses that are making a loss today or which did so yesterday is that businesses will make investment decisions on their expectations of future profitability. They will assess their future opportunity to make a profit. They will consider the future opportunity of after-tax profits, and they will make investment decisions today on that basis. They will make decisions today on whether or not they will expand their business, which could go to whether they will hire more Australians. As they make decisions to hire more Australians, they put more competitive pressure on wages—and that is how wages go up. These are basic fundamentals. (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Ketter, a final supplementary question.