Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the Treasurer's previous answer. Can the Prime Minister please explain how exactly will jacking up the GST to 15 per cent grow Australian jobs and the Australian economy?

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

The Leader of the Opposition leads a party that comes with a rather undistinguished record in fiscal management. The Howard government left office with $44 billion of cash in the bank—a net negative debt. Labor left office six years later with net debt of $202 billion.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on a point of order on direct relevance. This is suspiciously old-style regressive politics.

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

The member for Watson will resume his seat. The member for Watson does not have the call. The Prime Minister is 30 seconds into his answer.

Mr Danby interjecting—

The member for Melbourne Ports is warned.

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

The simple, fiscal facts are: we left office with $44 billion cash in the bank. Labor left office with net debt of $202 billion. For every additional dollar in revenue, they spent two dollars. From the measures that have been announced so far, Labor would blow the budget bottom line by nearly $55 billion—a $55 billion dollar blackhole.

The honourable member asked me about GST. There is a debate going on about tax and about GST—about all taxes, state and federal taxes. Honourable members will be familiar with the tax discussion paper released by the government in March this year—

Mr Champion interjecting—

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

The member for Wakefield is warned.

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

which was designed to promote an open discussion about our tax system and that is what has been going on. But Labor is afraid of that. It does not want to engage in any discussion.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

It wants to shut it down. Its method of engagement—taking the interjection by the member for Isaacs—is to shut down any discussion and call on the government to rule out taking any action on any of the issues canvassed in the discussion paper published in March. In other words, having started an informed discussion on tax, the opposition want us to shut it down. Why would they want us to do that? They are afraid of confronting the real fiscal mess that they have left us. They are afraid of confronting the fact that there are elements in our tax system that are profoundly unhelpful to strong economic growth. Bracket creep is seeing Australians on average earnings move into the second-highest tax bracket. That is not right. I do not think anybody here thinks that is right. Isn't that a problem that we should address? Isn't that an issue that we should be talking about? Well, of course, it is. As the honourable Treasurer said a moment ago, the OECD—which I noticed the member for Rankin used to have a very high regard for at one point—says that one of the upsides, potential for Australia to outperform, is the prospect of structural reform such as in taxation. So the OECD agrees with the government, but the Labor Party is out on a limb of its own. (Time expired)

Ms Kate Ellis interjecting—

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

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

The member for Adelaide will cease interjecting. The member for Rankin has been asked not to interject a number of times. He is now warned as well.