Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Minister for Finance, Vice-President of the Executive Council and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:16): What I can explain is that the Australian economy has faced a number of global economic headwinds, and everybody other than the Labor Party understands that. We are an open trading economy. If you look at what's happening in economies around the world, our economy continues to grow and continues to generate more jobs. There have been 1.4 million new jobs under our government, with, in particular, the highest workforce participation on record, equal highest workforce participation among women, 100,000 new jobs for young people in a very short time, welfare dependency as a share of the working-age population at its lowest in 30 years and a AAA credit rating which has been reaffirmed by the three leading rating agencies. We are one of only 10 countries with that rating. All of these arguments that the Labor Party are now throwing at us are all ones the Labor Party were putting to us in the lead-up to the last election, and the Australian people judged that there was a better opportunity for them to get ahead under our policies than under the alternative. So the Labor Party can try to run this argument as long as they want, but the truth is, yes, we are facing challenges and, yes, our government have a plan to ensure we are resilient and in the best possible position to deal with those challenges. Where other economies are going backwards, our economy continues to grow and create better opportunities for families to get ahead. You've always got to look at what the alternative scenario would've been— The PRESIDENT: Senator Gallagher, on a point of order? Senator Gallagher: I did wait for some time, Mr President, but it's on relevance. The question was around the HILDA Survey, and we drew on some statistics from that. The minister has not gone close to even attempting to answer that question. We can understand why. But certainly, on relevance, he should be drawn to answer the question— The PRESIDENT: On the point of order, I remind ministers that answers must be directly relevant. However, I cannot instruct them how to answer a question. I do believe the minister talking about economic issues and the government's record in relation to this question would be directly relevant. I call the minister to continue. Senator CORMANN: Household income is higher under our government than it would've been under the alternative. Opposition senators interjecting— Senator CORMANN: You can laugh about that, but, for starters, you went to the last election with $387 billion in higher taxes. Over the last three months, since the second week of July, the tax office has put $15.1 billion back into the pockets of hardworking Australians. Do you know why? It's because of our plan to provide income tax relief for hardworking Australians, which the Labor Party fought every step of the way, right until the end. There's $15.1 billion in tax cuts currently stimulating the economy that wouldn't have been there— (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Gallagher, a supplementary question?