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

I thank the honourable member for her question. The honourable member represents the seat of Cowan in Western Australia and she understands very well, I would hope, the importance of business investment, entrepreneurship and enterprise, and she should understand that the growth in jobs across our nation and particularly in Western Australia following the downturn, the inevitable downturn, of the mining construction boom has been based on hardworking Australian businesses investing and having a go—overwhelmingly Australian owned family businesses. These are the businesses that her leader wants to tax even more. We have reduced taxes on businesses with turnovers up to $50 million a year. She is a member of a party that wants to increase taxes on those businesses. So she's got to go out across Cowan and go to all those family businesses and say, 'The Labor Party wants you to pay more tax.' When the honourable member does that, do you think those businesses are going to say, 'Oh, that's terrific. In that case we'll hire some more people'? No, they won't. What the Labor Party is doing is putting at risk the jobs that have been created since September 2013—the 1,013,600 jobs; the fastest, largest jobs growth in our nation's history in 2017. All of that is being put at risk by an antibusiness tax grab from the Labor Party: over $200 billion—taxes on grannies and grandpas. Yes, it is. They're going after them: retirees, self-funded retirees. And the honourable member would have quite a few of those in her electorate. She should perhaps go to a seniors meeting—

Dr Aly interjecting—

Oh, the honourable member's calling back. Apparently, in Cowan older Australians are looking forward to giving 28 per cent of their income to a Labor government. They're lining up!

I would never challenge the honourable member on this matter, but having been to Cowan on a few occasions, I have to say I find her version of events quite implausible. I have no doubt that older Australians, whether in Cowan, Maribyrnong or any other electorate in this House, expect respect and support, and will not accept a government that goes after their savings. (Time expired)

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