Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Intergenerational report projections include the government's GP co-payment? Will the IGR projections be rendered inaccurate even before the report is released?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, it will not be inaccurate before it is released because it represents a 40-year projection of the state of the economy, the state of the budget and also, importantly, the state of demographic change. I invite the Labor Party to join us in this national conversation about the challenges facing Australia into the future. I genuinely do. I think this is a hugely important issue for Australia. It is a question about whether we are going to be able to afford our future.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order on direct relevance. Is the GP tax in or out of the IGR?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat. There is no point of order. The Treasurer has the call.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is a Labor term. This is the sort of pathetic politics you get. Mate, you have to get your terms right. It is like the tax-free threshold. You have to get your terms right. It is like net debt versus gross debt. You have to get your terms right. The currency of China is not the yen. You actually have to get your facts right. I know the member for McMahon struggles a little bit with the facts on net debt versus gross debt and yen versus renminbi. This is not the way to formulate alternative economic policy. The way to do it is to base it on facts. Given that now ACCI, which represents small business, and the Business Council have come out and said that Labor's new taxation proposal is going to cost jobs, I say to the Labor Party: 'Get your facts right.'

The whole purpose of the Intergenerational report is to lay down the facts as they stand at the moment about the challenges of the future and then encourage the nation to participate in a conversation about how we are going to live with dignity into the future and how we are going to afford aged care, health care, the education system and welfare and at the same time live within our means as a government and as a nation.

As the honourable minister said, we are optimistic about Australia's future. We believe we will have reason to be proud of Australia's future. We believe Australia's greatest names are ahead of us. But what we also know that you have to earn prosperity. You have to earn growth. You have to earn jobs. You have to earn your future. It does not come as a gift through the air conditioning in Parliament House. It only comes through good policy. It only comes through effort. The Intergenerational report is asking the Australian people to participate in a conversation about our destiny so that we can have the right policies to deliver the right outcomes for future generations of Australians.