DAVID KOCH:
Scott Morrison joins me now from Canberra. Treasurer, thanks for your time. Are you going to split the personal income tax package to try and ease its way through the Senate?
TREASURER:
No, we're putting the whole plan forward because we believe all Australians who work hard deserve tax relief. We believe businesses should have competitive tax rates so they can keep employing people and investing more. So this week, you'll see a lot of games from the Labor Party and in the Senate but what's clear is we're for lower and more competitive taxes and what you'll see from the Labor Party is trying to get in the way of us delivering that.
KOCH:
Alright, the splintering of the Senate – you've got more Senators leaving One Nation – is that going to make it easier for you?
TREASURER:
It's a bit unpredictable. It's a bit confusing up there in the Senate at the moment but Senator Cormann and the rest of the team have been working very diligently but we've just got to remember what the outcome is here we're trying to seek and that is that about 95 per cent of Australians who work and pay tax will not pay a higher marginal rate than 32.5 cents in the dollar – that's worth fighting for and we think that's an important change.
KOCH:
The sort of the philosophical issue of many of the Senators is, "why does the big end of town need bigger corporate tax cuts and why do the rich of Australia need to benefit from a tax cut?" Sure, keep it for middle to low income earners but why the top end?
TREASURER:
Our tax package makes sure that someone on the average – less than the average wage even today will not get hit by bracket creep in the future. This idea that it's all about the rich is absolute rubbish. It's just lies from the Labor Party and lies from the left-wing. What we're doing is delivering tax relief for all Australians because they all work hard and they all deserve tax relief and our businesses – I mean, large businesses pay money to small businesses – it's the one economy. If big businesses are doing better, then small businesses are doing better and we have got to be competitive in the world otherwise other countries will cut our lunch.
KOCH:
Alright, while we've got you The Australian Newspoll is out this morning, shows Malcolm Turnbull continues to lead Bill Shorten as preferred Prime Minister by a huge amount. But the Coalition has lost its 34th consecutive loss to Labor under Mr Turnbull on two-party preferred. Why doesn't his personal support translate to support for the whole party?
TREASURER:
Well, there's less than a year to go now to go to the election and I'd say we're one out and one back, David. But what we're doing, we've got a Prime Minister who continues to show that he's the right choice for Australians and there's a reason. What we see in the papers today, I'm releasing these figures today, that the Labor Party's Budget would be just a house of cards. The retiree tax which you know well which is already cruel, ripping people's tax refunds away. They've miscosted it. It's going to raise $10 billion less than what they originally said it would. It's $1 billion less over the forward estimates and their Budget would be a house of cards and that's why they can't be trusted to manage the economy. They did this last time. They said the mining tax was going to raise all this money and then they go and spend it all and the money doesn't turn up – that's why Labor Budgets are a mess.
KOCH:
Ok, Treasurer, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.
TREASURER:
Thanks David.