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) (14:00): My statement was a statement of economic fundamentals—economics 101. If you attract more investment and generate stronger growth, and more jobs are being created, as they are under our government, then there is more competition for workers. As you start depleting the excess supply in the labour market, and if there is stronger demand for workers and less supply of workers, of course wages will go up. That is a very basic economic fundamental. When we came into government, the economy was weakening, unemployment was rising—which is, of course, part of the reason why we went into a period of lower wages growth, because if wages had grown more strongly at the time of a weakening economy and rising unemployment then more people would have ended up unemployed. But what has been happening, as a result of our plan for a stronger economy and more jobs—as more than a million new jobs have been created in our period in government—is: of course, the excess supply in the labour market has continued to deplete. As more jobs are being created, there is more demand for workers and less supply of workers. That is basic market economics. Stronger demand and lesser supply drives prices up. If you've got lower demand and higher supply, prices go down. That is basic market economics. I know that the Labor Party don't— Opposition senators interjecting— Senator CORMANN: So, under Mr Shorten, taxes on business will be higher, so there will be less investment, lower growth, fewer jobs, higher unemployment, less competition for workers and, consequently, lower wages. Under our plan, there will be lower taxes on business, which means there will be more investment because we compete for investment with countries around the world. There will be more investment. There will be stronger growth. There will be more jobs. There will be lower unemployment. And, as there is lower unemployment and stronger demand for workers, there will be higher wages. (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator McCarthy, a supplementary question?