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

The coalition delivered tax cuts for Australian families. We delivered them! We did not just talk about them, we delivered them—tax cuts for Australians on middle incomes. And we have also delivered tax cuts for small-and medium-size businesses, which employ collectively half of the Australian private sector workforce. Three million businesses are enjoying tax cuts now and over the next couple of years as the threshold increases. They employ half of the Australians in the private sector.

The Leader of the Opposition wants to roll that back—to claw that back! He is going to go to those businesses which are getting a break, which are getting a tax break and are able to invest more and to employ more, and he is going to say, 'We want your money!' A Labor government is going to put up their taxes—that is what he wants to do. That is his commitment.

Our commitment is to deliver a budget that is fair, that defends the vital services Australians need and which provides the opportunity for them to get ahead. And we have done exactly that. We are delivering those tax cuts to Australian businesses which, as the Leader of the Opposition knows—because they are his own words—deliver more investment, higher productivity and more jobs. He said it. He said it very well! He was on message there, and he was right!

We are delivering that. We are guaranteeing Medicare. We are funding the National Disability Insurance Scheme. How fair is it to do what the Leader of the Opposition does—to talk warmly and compassionately about disabilities but not to put the money there to pay for them? At some point you have to put up the money to pay for it. He failed to do that, but we have.

Then, of course, we have seen their hypocrisy and the inconsistency with schools funding, where for years they talked about needs based funding and delivered the exact reverse. And now we are delivering on the precise vision that David Gonski represented—consistent transparency and needs based funding. We are delivering it!

The Labor Party would of course like to have a top marginal rate of 49½ per cent. This is a party that condemned the temporary deficit levy when it was proposed. They said it was a deceit tax, then they finally voted for it with a sunset clause so that it ended on 30 June this year. Labor voted for it and the parliament voted for it. It is not being abolished; it is expiring in accordance with an act of parliament, which Labor voted for. Labor supported it! So that is yet another inconsistency and another hypocrisy from this mob opposite.

See this speech in context