Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. According to The Australian, the Prime Minister has said:

If you are a PAYE taxpayer there are fewer opportunities available to you to reduce the level of your tax.

Why is it that the Prime Minister thinks that it is appropriate for him to actively invest in a vulture fund located in a tax haven when, in his words, it is completely out of reach for most Australians?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I refer the member for Fraser to the statement I made just after the last question from those on my left. I am going to call the Prime Minister, but he only needs to refer to the matter related to the quote and PAYE taxation. The rest of the question, I feel, is in breach of the standing orders.

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

I have answered the question in my previous answer, but I do have to record my deep sympathy for the honourable member. I felt sorry for him, listening to him on the radio this morning, at being forced to utter such crude smears as he had been sent out to do—and now he is having to do it again. He is a former professor of economics, and I know him well enough to know how uncomfortable he feels having to do the dirty work that the Leader of the Opposition is not prepared to do himself.