Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

which was designed to promote an open discussion about our tax system and that is what has been going on. But Labor is afraid of that. It does not want to engage in any discussion.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

It wants to shut it down. Its method of engagement—taking the interjection by the member for Isaacs—is to shut down any discussion and call on the government to rule out taking any action on any of the issues canvassed in the discussion paper published in March. In other words, having started an informed discussion on tax, the opposition want us to shut it down. Why would they want us to do that? They are afraid of confronting the real fiscal mess that they have left us. They are afraid of confronting the fact that there are elements in our tax system that are profoundly unhelpful to strong economic growth. Bracket creep is seeing Australians on average earnings move into the second-highest tax bracket. That is not right. I do not think anybody here thinks that is right. Isn't that a problem that we should address? Isn't that an issue that we should be talking about? Well, of course, it is. As the honourable Treasurer said a moment ago, the OECD—which I noticed the member for Rankin used to have a very high regard for at one point—says that one of the upsides, potential for Australia to outperform, is the prospect of structural reform such as in taxation. So the OECD agrees with the government, but the Labor Party is out on a limb of its own. (Time expired)

Ms Kate Ellis interjecting—

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

See this speech in context