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

I thank the honourable member for his question. This once-upon-a-time powerful advocate for company tax cuts driving investment, productivity and higher wages, this Leader of the Opposition, now says that the proposition that lower business taxes result in more investment, more employment and higher wages is a fairytale. It's always good to look out for fairytales. And the Leader of the Opposition is quite capable, obviously—we see it all the time—of doing a 180 degrees on his own views. But what about the 2010 budget, written by the member for Lilley and of course ably assisted by the member for Rankin? I reckon the member for Rankin wrote this bit. He said:

The reduction in the company tax rate is expected to increase GDP by 0.4 per cent in the long run. Together with the resource tax reforms, this will lead to a long run increase in GDP of around 0.7 per cent and increase real after tax wages by 1.1 per cent. Over time this will lead to an increase in investment. This in turn will flow through to higher real wages for Australians.

That part of this 2010 budget overview has now been dismissed as a fairytale by the Leader of the Opposition. I have to say, to be fair to the Leader of the Opposition, that the document is not entirely without fairytale content.

Ms Chesters interjecting—

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