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

It shows the sad and childish desperation to which the opposition have sunk. We had an exchange in the House yesterday in which we were discussing personal income tax and the capital gains discounts. We were talking about the way in which Labor was proposing to halve that discount and, thereby, discourage investment and threaten jobs. We talked about that, and I explained how that would have the result, in many cases, of having a massive tax on the real after-inflation gains, so that people could be paying, if they had an asset that appreciated, for example, for five per cent for five or six years—under Labor's plan, their after-inflation gain, their real gain, would be taxed at 70 per cent. That is what we were talking about. I was then asked a question by the member for McMahon, who said, 'I refer to your previous answer; what about capital gains tax?', to which I responded. Now he wants to pretend that that answer extended to subjects that were not contained in the previous answer. This is childishness. This is pathetic childishness. You would think that the opposition would be better. You would think that the opposition could tender, produce or table, for example, the modelling that they have relied upon in asserting—

Ms Macklin interjecting—

See this speech in context