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

He is always telling people what they want to hear. Now he's decided that he wants to be an Australian version of Jeremy Corbyn. Let me tell you, mate: you haven't got what it takes to be Jeremy Corbyn. You need to do a bigger makeover than you have done already.

The reality is this: as we know, we have in Australia relatively high minimum wages compared to many other countries and we have a means-tested welfare system. As Dr Leigh, the shadow assistant Treasurer, has written in his work over the years, that is why income household income inequality is less marked in Australia than it is in the United States or the United Kingdom. It is why, for example, when the Leader of the Opposition gave his speech at the Melbourne Institute, he was quickly denounced by none other than Professor Roger Wilkins, the author of HILDA:

In his speech to the annual Economic and Social Outlook Conference Professor Wilkins said a narrative claiming that inequality was ever rising was "patently false" from the available evidence we have.

This clearly shocked that distinguished academic, but it did not shock any of us, because we know that the way to address low wages and slow growth is to support growth and investment. That's what we're doing. Labor has not got a single policy that would support economic growth. In fact, when put on the rack by the redoubtable Fran Kelly on Radio National on this very point, all he could do was stumble and bumble and say, 'We like public transport.' I tell you what, Mr Speaker: under a Shorten government we'll all be getting a train to Centrelink! (Time expired)

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